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COL. WM. M. COCKRUM. 



HISTORY 



of th€ 



Underground Railroad 

AvS IT WAS conducted BY 
THE ANTI-SLAVERY LEAGUE 



INCLUDING 

Many Thrilling Encounters Between Those Aiding 

the Slaves to Escape and Those Trying 

to Recapture Them 



BY 

COL. WILLIAM M. COCKRUM 
Author of a **Pioneer History of Indiana' 

OAKLAND CITY, INDIANA 



PRESS OF 
J. W. COCKRUM PRINTING COMPANY 

Oakland City, Indiana 



E^S^-^ 



Entered according to an Act of Congress in 
the year 1915 

By WILLIAM M. COCKRUM 

n the office of the Librarian of Congress, 
at Washington, D. C. 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



SEP 22 1915 

©C1.A410588 



ts 



This book is dedicated to the memory 
of Col. James W. Cockrum (the author's 
father), Dr. John W. Posey, Dr. Andrew 
Lewis, Ira Caswell, and George W. Hill, 
five brave, true-hearted men who gave of 
their time and means unstintingly to 
help liberate the lowly slave. 



FOREWORD. 

In writing a history of the so-called Under- 
ground Railroad, the author is controlled by a 
desire to be just to the anti-slavery people who 
were aiding the slaves to gain their freedom, and 
to the pro-slavery people who were hunting for 
runaway slaves to return them to their masters, 
all of whom were active in this work in all the 
country bordering on the Ohio river during the 
early fifties. In no case has he given the right 
names of persons where their actions might be 
construed by their living relatives as reflecting 
unfavorably on their characters. 

The data for this work were secured by the 
personal experiences of the author, working with 
the superintendent of the Anti-Slavery League, 
who had charge of this work here. Also from 
data gathered from many persons who were con- 
nected with the work. This has never been in 
print before except some articles which the author 
used in his Pioneer History of Indiana, and which 
properly belong in this work. For many years 
the author has been waiting for some one more 
competent to do this work. A few years more, 
and all this data would have gone the way that 



FOREWORD. V 

SO much of the early history of our country has 
gone. 

The author has no apology to make in the 
publication of this book. He thinks it right that 
the young people should know how things were 
carried on during the fifties by the pro-slavery 
people who had control of the government. The 
anti-slavery people would not have organized the 
Anti-Slavery League, if the people of the South 
had not caused a law to be spread on the statutes 
of the United States that gave them dom- 
ineering privileges over the North. These unusual 
privileges were taken advantage of by many men 
all over this country who attempted to, and did 
kidnap, thousands of free negroes and sold them 
into slavery. Just think of a swaggering bully 
coming up to people who were engaged with their 
own affairs, and saying: "I have some fugitive 
slaves that are hidden in this section and I want 
you to help me catch them." If the man wanted 
to beg off, this bully would say, "If you refuse, I 
will have you arrested for not obeying the law and 
for aiding fugitive slaves to escape." This bully- 
ing, overbearing beharior of the southern men, 
seemed to have been catching. The local slave 
catchers and kidnappers of this section tried to 
ape the southerner and in many cases went much 



vi FOREWORD. 

farther in their boastful, threatening way. This 
was kept up until they were given an object lesson 
that taught them that others could play the kid- 
napping game as well as they, and the Anti- 
Slavery League did kidnap ten of them and gave 
them a lesson that they did not forget as long as 
they lived. 

In submitting this work to the public the 
author wishes here to acknowledge his indebted- 
ness to those who aided him in securing data for 
its completion. The names of those giving the 
most valued assistance are hereby given : 

John T. Hanover, known in this work as John 
Hansen, for a copy of the Organization of the 
Anti-Slavery League. 

Col. J. W. Cockrum for data. 

John W. Barrett for data. 

Dr. Logan Esarey for many favors. 

Ira Caswell for data. 

Dr. John W. Posey for data about the kid- 
napping of free negroes. 

Dr. J. R. Adams for data. 

Mrs. Ella C. Wheatley for valuable assist- 
ance. 

Rev. John E. Cox for assistance. 

George W. Hill for data. 



FOREWORD. vii 

Dr. George C. Mason for valuable sugges- 
tions. 

L. O. Emerson for the data of the two Munday 
boys gaining their freedom. 

Rev. Eldridge Hopkins for data. 

C. C. Caswell for a fme picture of his father. 

J. W. Lewis for a fine picture of his father. 

Mrs. Hannah M. Womac for a picture of her 
former husband, George W. Hill. 

Robert Hawthorne for data. 

W. D. Crow for suggestions. 




Map of the Underground Railroad in Indiana. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ANTI- 
SLAVERY LEAGUE 



Chapter I 

In all the territory of the free states adjacent 
to the borders of the slave states during the time 
after the passage of the last fugitive slave law of 
1850 up to the commencement of the civil war, 
there was great excitement between those hav- 
ing pro and anti slavery views. This was eminent- 
ly true along the southern borders of Illinois, In- 
diana and Ohio. Slaves being regarded as person- 
al property, "things" not human beings as the old 
Roman law was pleased to put it, the right of the 
master to reclaim his property had always been 
accepted as a reasonable consequence. 

The fugitive slave law of 1793 was similar to 
the agreement made in 1787, when the compact 
was accepted to forever exclude slavery from the 
states that would be formed out of the northwest 
territory, except that the act of 1793 provided for 
the reclamation of fugitives from justice as 
well as from service. It was accepted by all as a 
just law, permitting the owners of slaves to re- 
claim their property. 

The fugitive slave law that was passed in 

9 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

1850 the provisions of which were drafted by 
Senator Mason of Virginia who was among the 
foremost of the southern 'Tire-eaters" in his hat- 
red of the north (and he injected everything into 
that measure which he felt would be galling to 
the abolitionists), gave the slave holders, or those 
hunting their runaway slaves, the power to organ- 
ize a posse at any point in the United States to aid 
them in running down their negroes. 

There was a great impetus given to fugitive 
slave hunting in all the free states bordering on 
slave states and far into New England. The 
favored provisions that the south had received 
by that law were taken advantage of by many 
men who never had owned a slave or been in a 
slave state. 

Kidnapping the negroes was accomplished by 
running them away from their acquaintances to 
a friendly commissioner, probably a partner in 
the business, and there the kidnapper secured his 
right to the negro by a judicial decision of the vil- 
lainous commissioner who received from the Unit- 
ed States ten dollars for every decision he made 
against the negro and but five if he made one for 
the negro ; thus offering the Commissioner a bribe 
of five dollars for a favorable decision in the in- 
terest of the kidnapper. The negro was thus 
doomed and taken south and sold into slavery. The 

10 



ORGANIZATION ANTI-SLAVERY LEAGUE 

harsh and humiliating provisions of that law 
seemed to have imbued the southern men with an 
extra touch of their imaginary superiority. This 
was carried so far that when the war came on, 
their recruiting officers, when raising troops for 
the confederate army, boastingly said — "One 
southern soldier on the battle-field will be equal 
to five Yankees." 

Many of the provisions of the act of 1850 
were without a doubt unconstitutional. 

The constitution of the United States ex- 
pressly provides that — ''in suits at common law 
where the value in controversy shall exceed twen- 
ty dollars the right to a trial by jury shall be pre- 
served." The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 pro- 
vided for the delivery of fugitives from slavery 
without allowing them the trial by jury. Section 
Six of that law says that — 'In no trial or hearing 
under this act shall the testimony of such alleged 
fugitives be admitted in evidence." The first neg- 
ro arrested and tried before a United States com- 
missioner in Indiana was a free negro man. The 
Commissioner decided against him but when tak- 
en to the slave owner for whom he was arrested 
the man was honest enough to declare he had nev- 
er seen the negro before. The law was further 
very severe as it imposed a fine of one thousand 
dollars and imprisonment on anyone harboring 

11 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

or in any way aiding fugitives in escaping. 
Unfortunately for justice the United States 
Courts of that period were organized so favorably 
to the interests of the owners of slaves that a 
very small incident would be construed as aiding 
and harboring. 

In southern Indiana at an early day, four- 
fifths of the people were in sympathy with slav- 
ery. The greater portion of them had moved to 
Indiana from slave states and had been raised to 
regard the rights of the slave owner to his slave 
as sacred as his rights to his horses, cattle or any 
other property. It was but natural that law abid- 
ing people would have just such a regard for the 
law that they had been taught to obey. Slavery 
had existed in all the settled sections in the North- 
west Territory for many years before Indiana Ter- 
ritory was organized and at the time of the pas- 
sage of the fugitive slave law in 1850 there was 
but little open opposition to slavery. After that 
obnoxious law came in force so many brutal acts 
were committed by the kidnappers that a great 
change came over the people. They realized that 
the law was passed so that the negroes could be 
kidnapped and sold into slavery who were free 
born, and this be done under the guise of obey- 
ing the forms of law. 

The Anti-Slavery League was organized so 

12 



ORGANIZATION ANTI-SLAVERY LEAGUE 

that there might be some method of helping the 
slaves to escape instead of the hap-hazard way in 
which it was being done by the unorganized few 
who were helping the runaways. 

This organization was in direct opposition to 
the laws of the United States and its members ful- 
ly understood the severe penalties which would be 
meted out to them if they were caught in the act 
of violating the law. Notwithstanding this dan- 
ger there were hundreds of men who were will- 
ing to engage i nany enterprise which would de- 
feat the swaggering negro hunter. The organi- 
zation was made and there was all the money back 
of it that was needed, and it was very effective 
in helping large numbers of negroes to escape 
from slavery. 

It was not long after the employees of that 
organization were placed on duty at the different 
points assigned them until so many slaves escaped 
into freedom, and the route they went could not 
be ascertained, that the slave owners said there 
must be an under-ground rail road under the 
Ohio river and on to Canada. 

The Anti-Slavery League of the east had 
many of the shrewdest men of the Nation in its 
organization. They had a detective and spy sys- 
tem that was far superior to anything the slave 
holders or the United States had. There were as 

13 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

many as fifty educated and intelligent young and 
middle-aged men on duty from some ways above 
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, along down the Ohio on 
both sides of it to the Mississippi River. These 
men had different occupations. Some were book 
agents and other sorts of agents ; some were sing- 
ing teachers, school teachers, writing teachers and 
others map makers, carrying surveying and draw- 
ing outfits for that purpose; others were clock 
tinkers; some were real Yankee peddlers; some 
were naturalists and geologists carrying their 
hammers and nets for that purpose. They be- 
longed to any and all sorts of occupations and pro- 
fessions that gave them the best opportunity to 
become acquainted and mix with the people and 
gain a knowledge of the traveled ways of the 
country. They never engaged in political argu- 
ments making it a point always to acquiesce with 
the sentiment of the majority of the people they 
were associating with. There were ten young 
men who were carried on the rolls of the anti- 
slavery league who took upon themselves the role 
of a spy. These spies were loud in their pro- 
slavery talk and were in full fellow-ship with 
those who were in favor of slavery. In this way 
they learned the movements of those who aided 
the slav^ masters in hunting their runaways and 
were enabled often to put them on the wrong track 

14 



ORGANIZATION ANTI-SLAVERY LEAGUE 

thus helping those who were piloting the run- 
aways to place them beyond the chance of recap- 
ture. There was also a superintendent for each 
of the four states, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and 
Pennsylvania who had the management of the 
men working in the state that he was assigned to. 
The man who superintended Indiana was named 
J. T. Hanover but was known to us by the name of 
John Hansen. While he was doing this work he 
was for two or three days every two weeks at my 
father's house where he boarded off and on for 
five years. He was a naturalist and one time was 
near v/hat is known as Snakey Point now on the 
Evansville and Indianapolis Railroad, two and a 
half miles northeast of Oakland City. Seeing a 
snake of a peculiar specie he caught it with a pair 
of circle nippers he had for that purpose but when 
putting it into a cage was bitten through the 
thick part of the right hand and remained at my 
father's house for two and a half months under 
the care of Dr. Samuel McCullough. He came 
very near dying from the effects of that poison. 
During the time he was there much of his mail ac- 
cumulated at Princeton. The writer was sent 
there several times for it and answered many let- 
ters for him ; in fact, the last month and a half I 
did all his correspondance ; my father and Hansen 
consulted about my doing this work for him when 

15 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

he said he was wilHng to risk it as we would be as 
deep in the mud as he was in the mire. During 
the time he was lying there sick, young men came 
there to see him from Princeton, Boonville, Peters- 
burg and many other places. These men were all 
in the employ of the anti-slavery league. The 
author is yet in possession of a diary kept by Han- 
sen during that period, also a key which was used 
by Hansen in making his report. Without this 
key nothing in the work could be unraveled. 

Hansen was working and traveling over the 
first three or four tiers of counties all along the 
southern borders of Indiana and pretended to be 
representing an eastern real-estate firm from 
which he received large packages of mail at many 
of the county seats and large towns all along 
southern Indiana. The young men assigned to do 
this hazardous work under him were men who 
could be depended upon to do it in a way that no 
suspicion of their real mission would be had. They 
were under a most perfect discipline, similar to 
that the secret service men were under during the 
war times in the sixties. There was a code used 
that each man was thoroughly acquainted with. 
It had their numbers and all that was said or 
done about him was by number, which numbers 
were referred to as numbers of land, towns, ranges 
and sections and by acres when the numbers were 

16 




JOHN HANSEN. 
Superintendent of the Anti-Slavery League. 



ORGANIZATION ANTI-SLAVERY LEAGUE 

above thirty-six. The routes these men were on 
were called by the names of timber, such as lin- 
den, oak, maple, hickory, walnut, dogwood, sassa- 
fras, beech and all the sorts of timber that were 
native of the country in which they worked. 

There were many places that runaway ne- 
groes crossed the Ohio river from Kentucky into 
Indiana. I shall not attempt to give a description 
of any of the routes on the other border states, 
for the only one who knew anything about this 
work that I became acquainted with was the su- 
perintendent of the Indiana division. I shall name 
the most used routes commencing above the 
mouth of the Wabash River on the Ohio and on up 
to the neighborhood of Cincinnati. The most dif- 
ficult problem that the slave had to solve was how 
to cross the Ohio river, and to make that proposi- 
tion easy it was agreed that there should be sev- 
eral places located along that river where the 
negro could be crossed in boats and skiffs belong- 
ing to the anti-slavery league. 

At Diamond Island near West Franklin, Posey 
County, many runaway slaves were helped over 
the river and were taken over two routes. One 
route was to cross the Wabash river at Webb's 
Ferry near the southern line of Gibson County, 
Indiana and then on up along the Wabash or near 
it in Illinois to a friendly rendezvous where they 

17 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

met friends who carried them on farther north, 
to a point near Lake Michigan either in Lake, 
Porter or LaPorte Counties. Here there was a 
place in each county where they were secreted and 
smuggled on board a lumber bark that the anti- 
slavery people owned and that was manned by an 
anti-slavery crew. This boat was very unpreten- 
tious to look at but was built for strength and 
speed. Anyone not acquainted would think the 
boat would not dare venture five miles from shore. 
The boat cruised along the shore landing at dif- 
ferent points in the three counties, loading and un- 
loading freight as was offered them but carrying 
no passengers. The negroes were kept secreted in 
the holds until a number were gathered together 
and then taken along the Michigan shore on up 
into Canada. 

The other route from Diamond Island was 
to a point in Vanderburg county then known as 
the Calvert neighborhood, thence north to the 
various rendezvous until at one of the gathering 
places near Lake Michigan. Near the city of 
Evansville was another place where the runaways 
crossed. This was a very popular route as there 
were many free negroes in the city among whom 
the refugees could be easily hidden. 

This work was done at night by fishermen 
who supplied fish to the market. These two men 

18 



ORGANIZATION ANTI-SLAVERY LEAGUE 

with the fish boat were in the employ of the anti- 
slavery league. No doubt there are old people of 
the city of Evansville who can yet remember two 
young men who sold fish in their market during 
the early fifties who were men of literary attain- 
ments. The refugees who crossed by this route 
were placed in the hands of one of the anti-slavery 
league's pilots or guides and were taken by them 
along different routes to places where the negroes 
had friends who carried them farther north, turn- 
ing them over to other friends until they arrived 
at one of the points near Lake Michigan. 

The third route which was controlled by these 
people was a short distance above the mouth of 
Little Pigeon. There was a crossing here by 
skiffs and the refugees were carried to a point and 
turned over to friends between Boonville and 
Lynnville in Warrick county, Indiana, and thence 
north to my father's big barn cellar situated on 
my father's farm now in the center of Oakland 
City, Indiana, remaining there one day, and then 
at night they were taken to Dr. John W. Posey's 
coal bank near Petersburg, Indiana. From there 
they were sent north to friends in Davies and 
Green county and then on to other friends and 
finally up to Lake Michigan. When there were 
only one or two of these fugitives they woald be 
kept in our cellar or Dr. Posey's coal bank until 

19 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

more could come, when they would be piloted 
farther north. 

The fourth place for crossing the Ohio river 
was at a point midway between Owensboro, Ken- 
tucky, and Rockport, Indiana. There used to be a 
little fisherman's hut on the south bank of the 
Ohio river at this point and two men who put in 
much of their time fishing, lived in that shack. 
They sold their catch to steam boats, fiat boats 
and coal fleets passing down the river and made 
good money in the trade this way. The real busi- 
ness of the men was to carry refugees that were 
brought to their shack at night, across the Ohio 
river. Then one of them piloted the negroes to a 
point where they were put in charge of friends 
who carried them to freedom. A few miles east 
of Rockport, Ind., many refugees were crossed 
over the Ohio river. 

The next regular crossing place was near the 
mouth of Indian Creek in Harrison county. These 
refugees were ferried across, then conveyed to 
friends near Corydon who carried them farther 
north across Washington, corner of Jackson into 
Jennings, then through Decatur, Rush and Fay- 
ette counties, into Wayne where they had an in- 
numerable host of friends among the Quakers. 
They were then piloted through Western Ohio 
and on to Lake Erie and a rendezvous where the 

20 



ORGANIZATION ANTI-SLAVERY LEAGUE 

anti-slavery people owned another lumber shack 
that they were put on board of; and when a suf- 
ficient number had been gotten together they 
were carried to a point in Canada. There were 
probably more negroes crossed over the Ohio 
river at two or three places in front of Louisville 
than any place else from the mouth of the Wabash 
to Cincinnati. The reason for this was that the 
three good sized cities at the Falls furnished a 
good hiding place for the runaways among the 
colored people. Those crossing at these places 
were all conveyed to ¥/ayne county, Indiana, and 
thence on to the Lake. 

Probably in Wayne county, Indiana, the fugi- 
tives had more friends among the large communi- 
ty of Quakers who lived in that district than any- 
where else and it was a common saying by those 
losing slaves, that if they got to Wayne county 
the prospect of finding them was very remote. It 
is said that the old house built by Levi Coffin and 
now owned by Maj. Lacey, Fountain City, Indiana, 
has furnished shelter for ten thousand runaway 
negroes. 

From the early fifties until the war came on 
there w^ere many persons who were in sympathy 
with the fugitive negroes who were regarded as 
strong pro-slavery in principle and this was the 

21 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

main reason why so many negroes eluded those 
who tried to capture them. 

The soldiers from many parts of Indiana 
were very much divided in their opinion on the 
slavery question the first two years of the war. 
When it was first talked about raising negro 
soldiers, many loud and deep curses were heard 
against the administration for such actions. Many 
officers resigned and left the army at about that 
time who were influenced in taking that step by 
the emancipation proclamation and the arming of 
the negro soldiers. 

From the middle of 1863 until the close the 
serious and business part of the war came on. The 
hardest campaigns and severest battles were en- 
gaged in. This in a great measure cured all the 
grumbling. The soldiers by this time were will- 
ing and ready for any and all kinds of help and 
from any source to put the rebellion down. Nine- 
ty-nine per-cent of them returned home cured of 
the prejudice they formerly had against the negro 
and abolitionists. There are quite a few at this 
late date when the destruction of slavery is re- 
garded as the greatest achievment of the nine- 
teenth century, who question the actions of those 
who aided slaves to gain their liberty. Fortunate- 
ly for our state, they are few. 

The most hazardous work done by the em- 

22 



ORGANIZATION ANTI-SLAVERY LEAGUE 

ployees of the anti-slavery league was on the south 
side of the Ohio river, and in many cases far to 
the south. This work was very dangerous and 
none but those who were regarded as the most 
careful men were sent into that section and only 
those who volunteered to go. They took up many 
occupations such as would bring them in contact 
with the negroes. There were regular pack ped- 
lers carrying a large leather pack on their back 
with compartments in it that would contain cheap 
jewelry, bright colored ribbons and many other 
articles of wearing apparel, and a line of pocket 
cutlery and ornaments as would please the slaves 
and at such a price as would enable them to pur- 
chase. They also carried fine linen and nice dress 
goods, ribbons, lace and fine handkerchiefs, which 
were shown to the white people where they always 
went first, asking the master of the house, if he 
were there, if not, the mistress, for permission to 
show his goods to the slaves, usually presenting 
the lady of the house with some fine handkerchief 
or lace. These young men were clean, intelligent 
and cultured. They had no difficulty in getting 
into the best houses always agreeing with the 
family in politics. These peddlers carried their 
goods over a large scope of country, and usually 
every three or four weeks would go over the same 
ground . In this way they became well acquainted 

23 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

with the white and colored people and with the 
roads, creeks and rivers in the territory they were 
working. After gaining thorough knowledge they 
would select an intelligent negro and approach 
him on the subject of gaining his freedom (the 
northern soldiers were not the first to learn that 
a secret instrusted to a negro of this character 
was never revealed.) Finally it was suggested 
that the negro work for the peddler for pay, by 
going after night to those likely to be glad of an 
opportunity of escaping from bondage and talk- 
ing to them on that subject. It was known for 
many years before the negroes were emancipated 
that notwithstanding the patrol that was kept up 
in the slave states, negroes would travel at night 
over a large territory of country and always be 
back home in the morning. They had a secret way 
of commuAicating to each other which was not 
known to their masters. 

In a short time this negro, selected by the 
peddler would have two or three ready to take 
the chance of gaining their freedom. They per- 
haps lived several miles away from the neighbor- 
hood this negro lived in. The time and place to 
meet would be agreed on ; the peddler would have 
an accomplice on hand at the meeting place whom 
the runaway would be placed in charge of and then 
hurried to one of the crossing places on the Ohio ; 

24 



ORGANIZATION ANTI-SLAVERY LEAGUE 

then as far from the river as possible before the 
people were up and about. The negroes would be 
hidden in a dense thicket or in a barn of some 
friend and fed there until night came, when they 
were piloted farther north. 

The next morning when it was found that 
the negroes were not on hand, there would be a 
great commotion and everybody, the negroes in- 
cluded, would be scurrying over the country to 
find them; the peddler as busy as any of them 
hunting for a clue. In this way nearly a day would 
be spent. Then the master or someone he hired 
would start out to find them. They very seldom 
found any clue and if they did the negroes would 
be half way across the state before the slave 
hunter got started after him. The negro in the 
employ of the peddler would the next time do his 
work in another direction and secure two or three 
more and have them meet the pilot and thus on to 
liberty. After things had quieted down probably 
the negro who had brought about the liberation 
of ten or fifteen of his people would with his wife 
and children take the same underground trip in 
the same way and gain his freedom. 

Some of these agents understood geology and 
mineralogy and carried many kinds of instru- 
m.ents for testing the minerals in the earth claim- 
ing to have a mineral rod which would tell of the 

25 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD * 

presence of gold, silver, copper or lead. 

On^ of these men went to a neighborhood in 
Kentucky not far from Green river and was hunt- 
ing over the country, as he claimed, for a place 
where the Indians in an early day procured large 
quantities of lead, claiming that his grandfather 
had been a prisoner among the Indians for a long 
time and during that period went several times to 
a lead mine with the Indians and had noted down 
a description of the territory, describing some pe- 
culiar rock formations and noted that the lead 
mine was only a few hundred feet from the rocks 
described. 

This mineralogist went to a gentleman living 
in the neighborhood and applied for board for ihe 
time he would be working in that section telling 
the gentleman his business, explaining to him 
his grandfather's statement about the lead mine 
and showing him a very old looking paper on which 
the peculiar rock formation w*as minutely de- 
scribed. The host said that he knew where the 
place was and the next morning they started out 
together for the point not more than two miles 
away. First, going to the owner of the land they 
asked his permission to examine the rock forma- 
tions that the old chart so minutely described, 
which permission was readily given. The owner 
went along with the two men. After getting to 

26 



ORGANIZATION ANTI-SLAVERY LEAGUE 

the point they decided that without a doubt the 
description was of that place. The mineralogist 
asked permission to hunt for the lode and made 
an agreement that if he found the lead mine the 
owner would give him one-fourth interest in it. 
He soon went to work, the owner furnishing sev- 
eral negroes to dig for him. They dug up a large 
territory and finally decided that they would not 
work any longer at it for the present. The 
mineralogist said he would go back home and look 
over all the papers that were his grandfather's and 
see if he could not find other evidence more par- 
ticularly locating the lode. Within two or three 
months after this as many as forty negroes left 
that neighborhood. They went two and three at 
a time and the surrounding neighborhood lost 
several negroes who were no doubt on the same 
under-ground railroad. The owners never could 
find the least clue as to where they went. 

The last of November 1861, the writer with 
his regiment was marching on the east side of 
Green river en route for Calhoun, Kentucky, where 
General T. L. Crittenden was located with a divis- 
ion of the federal army, watching the movements 
of Gen. Sidney A. Johnson, who was then at Bowl- 
ing Green, Kentucky, in command of the con- 
federate army at that place. Late one evening 
after passing a large farm and coming up to a 

27 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

fine country residence, a man, probably fifty years 
old, was standing in his yard using the most vio- 
lent denunciations against the soldiers and all 
Yankees in general. The Colonel commanding the 
regiment left the Adjutant opposite the house 
with orders as soon as the rear guard came up to 
arrest the vicious man and bring him along with 
them to the place where the regiment intended 
camping. This was done and that night the 
Colonel went to the guard's quarters to find out 
what was the cause of the Kentuckians violent 
language. He told the Colonel that he hated the 
name of ''Yankee" and that he would rather be 
dead than see their hated soldiers on his planta- 
tion; that five or six years before that time, a 
Yankee mineralogist had received his permission 
to prospect for lead on his farm; that the villain 
had papers describing a section of country in that 
neighborhood and particularly described just such 
a rock formation as was on his land. After work- 
ing two months he decided he could not find the 
lead and went away and in less than eight weeks 
there were forty three negroes who ran away 
from that section of the state, eight of them were 
his property being all he had except two old crip- 
pled ones and he had never found any clue as to 
where they went. 



28 



CHAPTER II 



JERRY SULLIVAN'S RAID AT THE OLD DON- 
GOLA BRIDGE 

In 1851 Mr. Andrew Adkins came across the 
Patoka river at Dongola to see my father. It 
was late in the summer and the farm work* was 
nearly all done as we were just cutting our fence 
corners. My father was not at home and Mr. Ad- 
kins remained until after dinner to see him. There 
were three hands beside myself at work on the 
farm. As Mr. Adkins was coming over that morn- 
ing two men from near Kirk's Mills, now called 
Bovine, overtook and rode to the bridge with him. 
They showed him a flaming hand bill giving a 
description of seven runaway negroes and of- 
fering a reward of one thousand dollars for their 
capture. They informed Mr. Adkins that they, 
with some others, intended to watch the bridge 
that night and invited him to assist them, offering 
to share the reward with him if they got the ne- 
groes. 

Mr. Adkins was very anxious for fear they 
would catch the negroes and while we were rest- 
ing after dinner he so expressed himself to the 

29 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

hands. At that time we had a discharged soldier 
of the regular army named Jerry Sullivan work- 
ing for us. In the talk Sullivan asked why it 
would not be a good plan to rout the bridge watch- 
ers. This Mr. Adkins thought would be a good 
thing to do but the fugitive slave law gave the 
men the lawful right to catch them and the courts 
in this country were so organized that it was dan- 
gerous business to try to hinder anyone from re- 
capturing the slaves. Those capturing them for 
the reward had the same rights under the law as 
the master had. Sullivan was a full fledged abo- 
litionist and said — "Fugitive slave law to the 
winds, just give me a chance and I will clean out 
that bridge watching gang in good shape." Mr. 
Adkins had the will but he did not dare go into 
the conspiracy as the two men who offered to di- 
vide the reward with him were neighbors of his, 
and if it was found he was in the scrape they 
would cause him to pay a heavy fine. 

Sullivan was very anxious to get after them 
and consulted us about going with him. Finally 
it was agreed that we would all pretend to go fish- 
ing late that evening and put out a trot line and 
stay until late in the night. Mr. Adkins agreed 
that he would go home and send his younger 
brother, Pinkston Adkins and Hiram Knight, a 
neighbor boy, late in the ^evening to go with us. 

30 



JERRY SULLIVAN'S RAID 

Before he would agree to do anything he made us 
promise not to kill any one and that we must not 
injure the horses of the men guarding the bridge. 
After we made these promises he said he would 
see Basil Simpson who lived on the bluff but a lit- 
tle way west of the bridge and who was thorough- 
ly in sympathy with the anti-slavery people, and 
ask him to watch where the men put their horses. 
When the two boys came over late in the evening 
they were to remain near Mr. Simpson's until the 
watchers had gotten to the bridge and had hidden 
their horses, then they would come on to the 
agreed rendezvous which was about one mile south 
of the bridge. After these arrangements were 
made Mr. Adkins went home thinking we would 
not do anything more desperate than turning their 
horses loose and driving them away so they would 
not find them for some days. 

Finally, my father came home and we got his 
consent to go to the river fishing. Sullivan got a 
number of old newspapers and rubbed wet powder 
over them leaving it in lumps so that it would 
flash when it was burning and make a regular 
flambeau. He dried the paper in the sun and then 
took a lot of fuse which had been used in blasting 
stumps. Taking a good supply of flax strings 
which we made for the purpose he made six large 
broches out of the newspapers. 

31 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

We had plenty of horses and about sundown 
we took our trot line and guns and started for the 
river. When we arrived at the meeting place we 
had to wait until a little after dark, when the two 
boys came mounted and armed for the fun. As 
Sullivan had been a soldier and was much older 
than aijy of the rest it was unanimously agreed 
that he should have full command and we would 
do as he directed. 

Mr. Simpson and the two Pike county boys 
had located the horses in a patch of small saplings. 
As I now recollect it they were less than one hun- 
dred yards southwest of the Dongola coal mine 
shaft and there were seven of them. The two 
Kirk's Mill men told Mr. Adkins there would be 
six and gave their names. One of them was a 
doctor who at that time lived in Lynnville in War- 
rick county. One was a hotel keeper who lived in 
Petersburg and another was one of his boarders. 
The other was a man who lived about half way 
from Dongola to Winslow on the north side of the 
river. It was never ascertained who the seventh 
man was. After the party had assembled, Sulli- 
van took charge giving each a number and directed 
us how to form a line and put us through a lot of 
manoeuvres which were pure nonsense to us then 
but which I afterward learned were good military 
tactics. 

32 





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L 



JERRY SULLIVAN'S RAID 

After waiting until about two hours after 
night, our commander got us in position, two and 
two and heading the cavalcade gave the command 
to ''Forward, March." We marched on until one of 
the Pike county boys told our commander that we 
were near the place where the horses were 
hitched. Halting us, the commander took one of 
the boys and located the horses ; then coming back 
he m.arched us up to a point where he wanted us 
to leave our horses. We dismounted, leaving one 
man to hold the five horses. One man mounted 
was stationed between the horses and the bridge 
to look out for the enemy. 

Stripping the saddles off the bridge watchers' 
horses and piling them at the root of a large tree, 
we led them out to the road and within about two 
hundred yards of the bridge, when Sullivan un- 
rolled his flambeau material and wrapped one of 
the broaches inside the hair of each horses tail. 
He securely tied them there leaving about six 
inches of fuse sticking out. As he had only six 
broaches he made another for the extra horse by 
cutting a strip out of a heavy saddle blanket. He 
rolled it very tightly putting about two thirds of 
a pound of powder into it and bound the strong 
material very tightly with the flax strings. The 
fuse in this case was longer than the others, as he 
said he wanted it to go off near the bridge. 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

He lighted all the fuse then ordered us to 
turn the horses loose and start them down the 
road toward the bridge. We soon had our horses 
started and running after them yelling like so 
many wild Indians. The broaches commenced to 
pop and fizz at a great rate and the horses were 
going like the wind. In a little while the big bomb 
went off and I doubt if anyone ever saw such an- 
other runaway scrape where there were an equal 
number of horses. 

They went across the bridge at top speed. 
When we got near the bridge, Sullivan ordered us 
to halt, make ready and fire, which we did. Jump- 
ing off our horses we loaded our guns. Our com- 
mander was calling aloud giving orders to an 
imaginary battalion to rush over the bridge and 
capture the villains. 

About this time Tom Midcalf , who was a fear- 
less fellow, became very much excited, jumped on 
his horse and ran over the bridge hallooing like a 
Comanche Indian. We kept up a f usilade for some 
time but there was no one there. The charge of 
the horses with the snapping and flashing of fire 
tied to their tails was enough to have scared the 
devil, let alone a few cowardly scamps who were 
waiting to capture a lot of poor runaway negroes 
trying to get away from the bonds of slavery. 

All the evidence of there having been anybody 
34 



JERRY SULLIVAN'S RAID 

there was the horses and we found a bed made 
down above the bridge where one relief of negro 
hunters were no doubt lying when the horses came 
charging on to them. We found two pair of boots 
under the bed put there for the purpose of rais- 
ing their heads. We also found a bushel basket in 
which they had their provisions. 

Sullivan rolled up a lot of rocks in their bed 
and threw it into the river. He cut their boots 
into strips and threw them into the river. Then 
he sent three of the boys back and got the seven 
saddles, cut them all to pieces and threw them in- 
to the river. I don't know how faa- the horses ran 
but probably several miles. 

It was believed that the men guarding the 
bridge were on the go before the horses crossed 
it and that they made good time until they got 
clear away for the noise made by our crowd and 
the running of the horses sounded like a host of 
men. Sullivan got us into line and escorted the 
Pike county boys near to their home and then we 
went home, arriving after midnight. Jerry Sul- 
livan remained at my father's home several weeks 
after these events. When he went away he said 
he was going to reinlist in the army. I have often 
wondered what became of him. If he was in the 
war of the rebellion I am satisfied he made his 
mark. 

35 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

The oldest of our crowd except Sullivan was 
less than sixteen years old. Just a lot of green 
country boys and as I recall the scrape with such a 
leader we would have run headlong into anything 
regardless of danger. I afterward learned that 
the thing needed was for soldiers to have a leader 
who had the grit and the will and they would fol- 
low him in the jaws of death. 

With the four young men named I have had 
many adventures and hours of pleasure. They 
were all brave true-hearted men, long since gone 
to their eternal rest. 

Years afterward Mr. Adkins told me that 
some time after the middle of the night of the 
raid, there was a knock at his door. On opening 
it one of the Kirk's Mills men was there and said 
that early in the night he had a chill and was com- 
pelled to go home, that he was very thirsty and 
asked for a drink of water. Mr. Adkins said he 
was satisfied that the reason the man stopped was 
to find out if he was at home. 

After the war v/as over and the negroes free, 
my father told me that the day Mr. Adkins was 
at his house waiting for his return, he was in con- 
sultation with Ira Caswell of Warrick county and 
Dr. Posey as how best to get the seven negroes to 
the north of White River without having them re- 
captured. 



JERRY SULLIVAN'S RAID 

The negroes at that time were safely hidden 
in the thick brush and tall grass in what was then 
known as the big pond, about two miles east of 
Oakland City. The pond at that time of the year 
was nearly dry and had a heavy growth of pond 
grass all over it. The runaways were kept there 
during that day and at night and were taken over 
the Patoka river at Martin's ford about one mile 
east of Massey's bridge and were then piloted 
along Sugar Creek for some distance until they 
came to where a wagon was in waiting for them in 
which they were carried to Dr. Posey's coal bank 
and hidden. They remained there the next day 
and at night were ferried across White river in 
skiffs and were turned over to another friend who 
rushed them on to Canada and freedom. When 
they had passed White river they were regarded 
as nine-tenths free. 



37 



CHAPTER III 



AN ATTEMPT TO CATCH RUNAWAY NE- 
GROES WHICH ENDED IN A DESPERATE 
BATTLE WITH WILD HOGS 

In 1852 Joseph Stubblefield was hunting some 
cattle which had strayed away from John Hath- 
away's works on the old Wabash and Erie canal 
just north of the Patoka river opposite the town 
of Dongola. Finding that the oxen had crossed 
the river he followed on after them until he came 
to what was then known as the Hazelrough, a 
large body of land which had but little timber on 
it but was completely covered with hazel brush 
matted together with grape vines, running in 
every direction all over the top of the low bushes. 
At that time there were many wild hogs running 
at large in all this section and that large body of 
wild tangled brush was an ideal home for them 
and offered them a bountiful supply of food from 
September to winter when there was other mast 
they could get in the timber around the edges of 
that immense thicket. In tracking the cattle it 
was found they had gone to the bottoms of Buck 
creek which was a short distance west of the 
rough, where he found them and in attempting to 

38 



BATTLE WITH WILD HOGS 

drive them back they made a rush to get away by 
going into the edge of the rough; following on 
after them some distance he came to a camp with 
a bed of leaves that looked as if it had been recent- 
ly used, as bones of animals and a piece of corn 
bread were found near the bed which was com- 
pletely covered with grape vines and could not be 
seen unless one should happen on to it as Stubble- 
field had done. He did not understand what this 
meant as he had seen no one. But when he got 
back with the cattle he related his find to some of 
the men on the works and learned that it was a 
bed made by runaway negroes, and that a posse 
had been there that morning enquiring for them 
and had left a hand bill giving a description and 
offering a reward for their capture. 

It was soon noised around that their hiding 
place had been found by Stubblefield and there 
was a posse organized to go back with him and 
capture the negroes. Mr. Hathaway learned what 
was up and sent for Joe and interrogated him 
about the bed and where it was. Mr. Hathaway 
was a just man and believed if the poor runaways 
could elude their master and gain their liberty 
that it was right that they should do it and told 
Stubblefield who at that time was not more than 
twenty years old that he thought it wrong for him 
to pilot those human hounds so that they could 

39 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

capture these poor unfortunates. Joe at once took 
the same view of the matter and it was arranged 
between them that he would do all he could to 
keep the men from finding the negroes by taking 
them to a wrong place and fool them all that he 
could until night would come and the negroes 
would then be on the way north. It was arranged 
that they would start about two o'clock. When 
the time came Stubblefield, who was equal to any 
emergency, pretended that he had sprained his 
ankle very badly and that he would have to bathe 
it for a while before he could go. In this way he 
put in as much as an hour and when he had gone 
some distance on the way he found that he had 
left his pocket book with all his money in his 
boarding shanty and must go back and get it. 

By this time it was four o'clock and an hour 
later when they got to the rough at the farthest 
point from where he had made the find. There 
was at least two hundred acres of this land which 
was very brushy and as much as one hundred 
acres that was a dense thicket. The party had 
brought five dogs with them and the leader of the 
posse was named Bev Willis, who owned a boat 
that was in the river at Dongola where he sup- 
plied the thirsty with Patoka water and whisky 
mixed. He was the owner of a very large white 

40 



BATTLE WITH WILD HOGS 

bull dog which was a great favorite with all when 
he was muzzled. 

Another one of the posse was Pat McDermitt 
who was one of Hathaway's bosses. He bor- 
rowed a large Newfoundland dog from his board- 
ing boss and there were three common dogs along 
that were of no special value. 

All told there were five men beside Stubble- 
field in the party all armed with some sort of a 
weapon. When they got to the rough, Mr. Stub- 
blefield said that in there not more than thirty 
feet from the post oak tree was where the bed was 
made. It was so thick that it was impossible to 
ride in anywhere. 

McDermitt, who was a dare-devil said he 
would go in and see what he could find. Taking 
his big dog along, he started to creep in under the 
tangle but had not gone far before he came to a 
nest of young pigs. One of the little dogs fol- 
lowing him caught one of the pigs and it set up a 
great cry. In a minute the old mother was on 
hand charging the dog that was barking at her 
family. The white bull dog went to the aid of his 
brother and soon caught the sow by one of her 
ears when she commenced to squeal and in less 
than a minute hogs were heard coming from every 
direction. They charged the white dog who, with 
bull dog pluck held his hold on the sow's ear. 

41 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Finally a large male hog cut the dog open with 
one of his tusks . By this time there was an awful 
uproar, dogs barking, hogs rallying and men yell- 
ing. McDermitt's big dog caught a pig. This 
brought the battle on him and in a moment he was 
surrounded with savage hogs. The continued bat- 
tle had brought the hogs and dogs near to the 
edge of the thicket. McDermitt intending to save 
his dog, ran his horse up to where he was and tried 
to catch him by a collar which was around his 
neck and bring him out. 

A large hog hamstrung his horse which 
threw McDermitt and before he could get away 
was tusked to the bone in several places in both 
legs. The other men fought the hogs back with 
their guns and secured their wounded companion. 
This ended the negro hunt. One man was cut to 
pieces and ruined for life, two valuable dogs killed 
and a horse so injured he had to be killed. After 
this the party concluded they had not lost any 
negroes and were glad to get back home. 

Isaac Street who had laid out and plotted the 
town of Dongola was a very quiet old Quaker and 
thoroughly in sympathy with the anti-slavery 
party. He and his good wife. Aunt Rachel, had 
many times fed and secreted the poor negroes as 
they were making their way to the North and 
liberty. They had knowledge of where the ne- 

42 



BATTLE WITH WILD HOGS 

groes were secreted in the thicket and while Stub- 
blefield was dilly-dallying time away before he 
went to pilot the posse to the field of carnage, Mr. 
Street learned of the proposed raid and with the 
aid of another man who was in sympathy with the 
negroes, took them from their hiding place under 
a small load of straw to his barn and that night 
carried them to the nprth of White river and de- 
livered them over to a friend. 

Thirty years after the events just recorded, 
in conversation with Mr. Stubblefield about his hog 
battle, he said that his life had been sweet to him 
although he had undergone many hardships and 
misfortunes, but in all his life there was never 
any one thing that he had always so thoroughly 
enjoyed as he did seeing those roaring negro hunt- 
ers defeated and routed. 



43 



CHAPTER IV 



IRA CASWELL BRINGS THREE NEGROES TO 
MY FATHER 

Early one morning in 1852 Ira Caswell ,of 
Warrick county, came to our house and had three 
negro men with him. My father put them in a 
heavy log building that we used for a pork house. 
I was sent with a letter to see Dr. John W. Posey 
at Petersburg, asking him if he could have some 
friend with a conveyance to meet Mr. Caswell on 
the north side of the Patoka river at Martin's ford, 
at ten o'clock that night, to convey the negroes to 
Dr. Posey's coal bank. I found the doctor and de- 
livered the letter. Dr. Posey asked me to excuse 
him for a short time and went out of the office; 
he soon returned and told me that Mr. John Stuck- 
ey would be at Martin's ford at ten o'clock that 
night, giving me a letter to my father to that ef- 
fect. 

I went to the Kinman hotel for dinner. In a 
short time Willis Coleman came in for his dinner. 
He was three years older than I was but we were 
good friends and made arrangements to be com- 
pany for each other going home. Before dinner 

44 



IRA CASWELL BRINGS NEGROES 

was ready a large man rode up to the hotel and 
was met by Mr. Kinman as if they were old 
friends; behind his saddle he carried a bundle of 
rope and three pairs of handcuffs. When he came 
into the office he unbuckled a belt that had a pair 
of pistols and laid them on a small table. He had 
quite a roll of hand bills that he gave to Mr. Kin- 
man and passed some to Coleman and me. These 
hand bills offered a reward of three hundred dol- 
lars for three fugitive negroes. From the de- 
scriptions I knew they were the same negroes that 
were locked up in our pork house. 

After dinner the slave hunter wanted to know 
if we would like to go to Winslow and Bfelp watch 
the bridge, saying that the slaves had crossed the 
Ohio river about south of Boonville and they 
would travel as near north as they could and that 
would bring them to Winslow. We told him that 
we would like to be in the frolic, but were in no 
condition for such service, and that our people 
would be uneasy about us. 

I wanted to see Dr. Posey to tell him about 
the slave hunter; I asked Willis to walk with me 
up to the main part of the town. (I did not make 
a confidant of Willis but he said as soon as we got 
away from the hotel that he hoped the negroes 
would get away). We met Dr. Posey, as I now 
recall it, at the corner where Col. Oliphant's drug 

45 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

store is, or was. The doctor and I stepped aside a 
little way and I was telling him about the slave 
hunter when some one came up behind me, and 
with both hands, crushed my hat down over my 
eyes and ears and I found it difficult to get my hat 
off. I heard a blow and a noise as if some one had 
fallen very heavily; by this time, with the aid of 
Dr. Posey, we tore the hat off, and I was just in 
time to see another fellow knocked fiat on the 
ground. Willis Coleman had knocked both of them 
down; the first one had hit his head on a rock 
or some other hard substance, and it looked for 
a time as if he would never regain consciousness. 
By this ^time a crowd had gathered and many 
wanted to know what it was about. I did not 
know either of the men until they were washed. 
I then saw that they were the same two fellows 
who had tried to abuse me at the Onias Smith 
school house the year before. We went to the 
justice's office, I think it was Esquire Boone or 
Osborne, I cannot recall which. Willis Coleman 
was put on trial for knocking the two fellows out ; 
the squire, after hearing the testimony of Dr. 
Posey and others decided that Coleman should be 
fined one cent in each case with the costs; the 
constable said that all costs were paid. I bought 
a hat and was ready to go. 

By the time we got back to the hotel it was 

46 



IRA CASWELL BRINGS NEGROES 

getting late in the evening. The slave hunter and 
Mr. Kinman were ready to start for Winslow. 
When we had got south of Petersburg about three 
miles we met three men riding very fast who 
asked if we had seen any strangers on the road. 
We told them about the slave hunter at the hotel 
and that he had gone go Winslow to watch the 
bridge there that night and gave them one of the 
hand bills given us. 

When I got home I found that Mr. Caswell had 
been sick nearly all day. My father said that I 
would have to take the negroes. At that time we 
had three negro boys living with us and working 
on the farm — they had been left there by their 
guardian until they could be sent to Liberia. We 
got out four horses, put one of the negro men and 
one of the boys behind on each of three horses, I 
rode the other and called the dogs for a coon hunt. 
In this way we went to Martin's ford, crossed and 
found Mr. John Stuckey waiting for us a little dis- 
tance away. He had a conveyance and loaded the 
negroes in and before day had them safely housed 
in Dr. John W. Posey's coal mine. The next night 
they were taken across White river on the aque- 
duct at Kinderhook and turned over to a friend in 
Daviess county, who sent them on farther north. 
I have no doubt but Dr. Posey's coal mine fur- 
nished one day's rest for a thousand negroes dur- 

47 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

ing the ten years after the fugitive slave law was 
passed in 1850 until 1861, when the war com- 
menced. The two young men I have been writing 
about belonged to a family that had drifted to 
Petersburg, working on the Wabash and Erie 
canal. They have relatives yet living in the coun- 
ty who are respectable people, which is the reason 
I do not give their names. 

One night in 1854 these boys pried open the 
back door of Warner L. Scott's store, took such 
articles as they wanted and left for St. Louis, 
where they engaged to v/ork for their passage as 
deck hands on a Missouri river steamboat. They 
went up the Missouri for many days and finally 
came to a trading station where many Indians 
came with furs and skins to sell. The two boys 
had grown tired of the trip. It was a little more 
dangerous than they had bargained for. The In- 
dians had many bull boats tied to the bank near 
the steamboat. One night these boys stole a large 
bundle of beaver skins and a bull boat and started 
down the river. The next m^orning the men and 
the bundle of skins were missing and one of the 
Indian boats was gone. It belonged to six Arick- 
aree Indians. They secured another boat and fol- 
lowed ; they were gone three days ; when they re- 
turned they had two fresh scalps, the boat and the 
bundle of furs. 

48 




IRA CASWELL. 



A Member of the Executive Committee of the Anti-Slavery 
League. 



CHAPTER V 



SLAVES ESCAPE WHILE OWNERS ARE DEEP 

IN SLEEP, THE RESULT OF TOO MUCH 

DRINKING 

During the summer of 1852 there was a fam- 
ily of negroes named Eastman consisting of six 
children, father and mother, eight in all. There 
were three grown daughters, two small boys and 
one boy about 18 years old. Their Master, John 
Travell, died owning thirty slaves. This Eastman 
family at the division of the estate was given to 
a nephev/ named for his uncle who had adopted 
him as one of his heirs. Young TravelFs home was 
in northeastern Kentucky. He went to Mississip- 
pi to get his negroes, (The Eastman family) and 
was bringing them up the Mississippi and Ohio 
rivers to Louisville, Kentucky. Young Travell 
had a bad habit that was common among young 
southern men of that day that of being a gambler. 
He had the negroes on the lower deck and had 
them all handcuffed together. 

The second evening after starting, Travell 
was drinking freely and was induced to engage in 
a game of cards by two professional gamblers of 

49 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Louisville. During the evening he lost all the 
money he had, and bet one of the negro girls 
against one thousand dollars. The gambler went 
down to the lower deck and selected the girl 
against whom he was to stake his money. Travel! 
lost the girl and was going to put up another one 
against the one he had lost, when the Captain 
of the boat, who was a friend of the Travell family 
interfered and took young Travell to his room to 
sober up. The gamblers waited for Travell to 
sober up. By this time the boat had passed Evans- 
ville. 

At Diamond Island, below Henderson, Ky., 
two of Hansen's anti-slavery guards came on 
board the boat for Cannelton, Indiana. Finding 
the negro family all hand cuffed together and 
learning the condition of things, they determined 
to liberate them if they could. The boat took on 
co'al at the mine near Newburg, and was pro- 
ceeding up the river for Louisville and had gone 
eight or ten miles when a cyclone from the south- 
west struck the boat and blew the smokestack 
down and tore the hurricane deck off, disabling 
the gearing machinery so she could not be steered. 
The river was full of timber and heavy, swelling 
waves. It looked as if the boat would be capsized. 
She finally drifted to the Indiana side and was 
made fast. Travell was still past getting about. 

50 



SLAVES ESCAPE WHILE OWNERS SLEEP 

Night coming on the captain told Travell that 
some one must be placed in charge of the negroes 
so that they could be loosed from the handcuffs in 
order to eat their meals. He told the captain to 
send somebody to him that he could trust. The 
two anti-slavery guards were the only men that 
were available. The captain asked one of them if 
he would take charge of the negroes and this he 
agreed to do. The captain got the keys for the 
handcuffs from Travell and gave them to the 
guard and placed him in charge of the negroes. 
Night soon came on and it was very dark. Near 
ten o'clock when everything had become quiet on 
the boat, the negroes were slipped ashore where 
they were taken in charge by the other guard. 
After going north for a little way they came to 
a road running east and west and not far from the 
river. Going east about one mile they came to 
what is now known as the Boonville and Yankee- 
town road. They left the road before getting to 
Boonville and traveled west intending to come in- 
to the neighborhood of Ira Caswell's. The party 
traveled all night and a little before daylight they 
came to a large pasture or woodland fenced in. 
Going into the woodland lot, they found a place to 
hide in a brier thicket of three of four acres. As 
soon as it was light enough to see, one of the 
guards went out to the road and soon found a man 

51 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

splitting wood. He made inquiry of the man if 
he knew of anyone wanting to hire help on a farm. 
He also asked the man if he knew Ira Caswell. 
In this way he found out that their hiding place 
was just about one mile north of Caswell's. 

The guard went to Mr. Caswell and told him 
of their hiding place ; soon a basket of provisions 
was ready and taken by Mr. Caswell and the guard 
to their camp. It was thought best to keep the 
two guards until' the negroes were farther away 
from where the stranded steamboat lay. Word 
was sent to George Hill and by him to my father 
that the negroes would be there about 4 o'clock 
the next morning. About that time the under- 
stood signal was heard. My father put the ne- 
groes in the barn cellar and they were there all 
day. At that time two of my father's Mississippi 
nieces were visiting him and they had a negro 
maid with them. During the day that the negro 
family was in the barn cellar this maid told a 
hired girl that was living with us that she was told 
by a negro barber at Princeton that she was free 
being in a free state. I told one of the guards of 
this and advised him to seek a chance to speak 
with her, which he did and she said that she 
would go if she had a chance. He told her that 
some negro girls would be in that vicinity that 
evening and if she would go to a place indicated 

52 



SLAVES ESCAPE WHILE OWNERS SLEEP 

she could join them. This she promised to do if 
she could possibly get away. 

We had sent word to Dr. Posey that we would 
be there about 11 o'clock that night. When it got 
dark we had the wagons ready and the negro fam- 
ily was loaded. My counsin's maid was on hand 
and took her place with the other three girls. 
There were five white men, well armed, with the 
wagons. When we got to Dongola we halted the 
wagons about 100 yards from the bridge. I went 
to see Mr. Simpson who lived near by. He said 
that there were two men watching the bridge, try- 
ing to capture three runaway negroes that had 
escaped from Kentucky. I went back to the wagon 
and told George Hill and the other white men what 
Mr. Simpson had told me. We held a consultation 
and agreed to go ahead and cross the bridge even 
if we had to fight for it. When we got near the 
bridge the two men stepped out. Mr. Hill asked 
them what they wanted, and they replied that 
they wanted to know what we were loaded with. 
Hill told them that we were loaded with hoop poles 
and pumpkins and for them to step back out of 
the way or they would get run over. This they 
concluded to do and we had no further trouble. 
When we came near Dr. Posey's Coal Bank we met 
his lieutenant, John Stucky. We delivered our 

53 



THE UNDERaROUND RAILROAD 

charge to him and he said that they would be far 
into Davies County before day. 

The next morning when my cousins found out 
that their maid was gone they made a great fuss. 
I got all the help on the farm and made a pretense 
of hunting for the missing maid. Finally I had to 
tell my dear cousins that some villianous slave 
hunter had kidnapped the girl and that no doubt 
by this time had crossed the Ohio river into Ken- 
tucky and had again sold her into slavery. 



54 



CHAPTER VI 



HOW THREE RUNAWAY SLAVES WERE AS- 
SISTED TO FREEDOM BY THE UNDER- 
GROUND RAILWAY 

On a raft of saw logs run out of Green river 
in 1854 there were four men. One of them was 
an overseer for the owner of the raft; the other 
three were very light colored mulatto slaves, who 
were brothers and very resolute, strong, young 
men. The overseer fell into the river at Spotts- 
ville, Ky., and was drowned. The three negroes 
tied the raft to the bank and abandoned it, de- 
termined to make an attempt to gain their free- 
dom. They wandered up on the south bank of the 
Ohio river until they came to a shack where two 
fishermen lived, whose pretended occupation was 
to fish and sell their catch to passing steamboats ; 
their real occupation, however, was to ferry run- 
away slaves across the Ohio river. The three 
runaways had lost one night and half the next 
day hunting for some way to cross the river be- 
fore they found the fishermen's shack, and then 
the fishermen were afraid to cross the river with 
them in daylight, so they had to wait until night 
before they got over the river. 

55 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

A second raft that belonged to the same man 
was only three hours behind ; when they came to 
the abandoned raft they tied up their raft and 
waited all night to see if the missing crew would 
not return. The next morning the two rafts were 
lashed together and run on to Evansville, where 
the alarm was given. Before the crew of the sec- 
ond raft left Spottsville, they found a man who 
said he had seen three very light colored negroes 
on the Ohio river bank about six miles up the 
river; that he had watched them for some time 
and they seemed to be looking carefully along the 
bank as if hunting for some way to cross the river. 
The man in charge of the rafts got on a little 
steamboat that ran from Evansville to Bowling 
Green, Ky., and returned to the home of the owner 
of the rafts, Mr. Thomas Irwin, on upper Green 
river, to report the loss. Irwin and his manager 
soon had two other men ready to go with them to 
hunt for the runaways. They had four of Irwin's 
best horses and two bloodhounds to track the 
negroes. 

The next thing for the fugitive slave guides 
to do after taking the negroes over the river was 
to deliver them to the nearest Underground rail- 
road station, which was Ira Caswell's about five 
miles north of Boonville, and it would require most 
of the night to get there. Along about the middle 

56 



SLAV1]S ASSISTED TO FREEDOM 

of the night they were on the main road and at a 
place where a hurricane had passed through many 
years before, blowing the large timber down, and 
which had grown up with brush and grape vines, 
making it impossible to ride through it, when they 
heard horses coming behind them. Stepping a 
little to one side they waited to see who was rid- 
ing so hard. Soon four horses and men came in- 
to view; they had gone but a little beyond where 
the men lay, when some large animals, as colts or 
deer, ran through the thicket, making a loud noise. 
The horsemen stopped to listen ; one of them said 
that he believed it was the negroes, and that it 
would be best to turn the dogs loose. Soon the 
dogs were on the trail of a bob cat or some other 
wild animal, which they treed about one hundred 
and fifty yards away, baying at it viciously. The 
men wondered what it could be. One of them sug- 
gested that they hitch their horses and let them 
rest, while they should go and see what it was; 
that it might be the negroes. This suggestion 
was adopted and soon they were all gone to where 
the dogs were making such a dreadful noise. As 
soon as these men were away the fugitives and 
their guide got to the road, mounted the horses 
and were soon going at a good speed; the dogs 
were making so much noise it is not probable that 
the slave hunters heard their horses leave. The 

57 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

fugitives soon arrived at Mr. CaswelFs and told 
him the trick they had played on the slave hunt- 
ers. The anti-slavery guide went to bed, and Mr. 
Caswell and the three negroes started for my 
father's home, where they arrived about daylight. 
Mr. Caswell told my father the negroes and the 
guide had captured the horses from the men hunt- 
ing for them. My father was a little doubtful 
about the extra horse, but the fugitives had noth- 
ing to fear, as they had no standing in law. It was 
decided that it would be late in the day before the 
slave hunters could come this far, if they should 
come this way. 

The men and horses were fed and rested 
about one hour, when they were ready to go. I 
piloted them through the woods to the Patoka 
river, which we crossed near Thomas Hart's farm. 
The extra horse followed its mates. We found 
Mr. Hart and he mounted the extra horse ; we rode 
through the woods most of the way, coming to 
White river not far from Wright's ferry. The 
negroes swam the river on their horses the extra 
horse following. Mr. Hart and I stood on the 
south bank until the negroes were away for the 
north at a brisk gallop. 

During the year 1895 I was Indiana's resident 
commissioner on the Chickamauga National Mili- 
tary Park at Chattanooga, Tenn. While acting 

58 



SLAVES ASSISTED TO FREEDOM 

in that capacity I was selected by the National 
Chickamauga Park Commission to serve on a com- 
mittee with Gen. John B. Turchin of lUinois, of 
the Union army, Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner of 
Kentucky and Gen. Wm. B. Bates of Tenneesee, 
of the Confederate army, to settle a disputed point 
about the location of cannon ball monuments at 
the places where Gen. James Deshler and Gen. 
Benjamin Hardin Helms of the Confederate army 
were killed September 20, 1863. (Gen. Helms was 
a rebel, yet he was a brother-in-law of the great- 
est American, Abraham Lincoln.) 

During the time I was with these gentlemen 
I became well acquainted with them. Knowing 
that Thomas Irwin lived, or had lived near the 
home of Gen. Buckner, I asked the general about 
him. He said he was well acquainted with Irwin 
in his life time, thought he had been dead for sev- 
eral years; that Irwin never heard of the three 
runaway negro men until after the war, when 
they wrote him that they sold one of the horses 
and rode the other three to Canada ; that the body 
of the overseer was found as a "floater," near Hen- 
derson, with the head crushed, done, no doubt, by 
the three boys. The general also said, that as for 
Thomas Irwin, he deserved all he got, for there 
was no doubt but the three runaway negroes were 
his own children. 

59 



CHAPTER VII 



KIDNAPPERS KIDNAPPED 

The fugitive slave law of 1850 was so sweep- 
ing in its many provisions that every negro found 
in a free state was likely to be kidnapped, taken 
out of his neighborhood, and before a commission- 
er friendly to slavery, put on trial as a fugitive 
slave, some man in a slave state being named as 
his owner. The testimony of the kidnapper was 
all the evidence given, as the negro was not al- 
lowed to give testimony any more than a cow 
would be. The kidnappers became so arrogant 
and boastful that it was very trying to the peo- 
ple who beheved in justice. I well remember them 
with their whips, handcuffs, and ropes tied to 
their saddles, and their pistols belted around them. 
They were continually riding over the country and 
when they would come to a field where men were 
working they would call them to the roadside and 
ask if they were opposed to slavery, and if they 
knew of anyone who was harboring runaway 
slaves. If they knew the persons they were talk- 
ing to were anti-slavery they would give them 
an awful grilling. Of all that I saw of these gen- 

60 



KIDNAPPERS KIDNAPPED 

try, Smith Gavitt, at that time sheriff of Vander- 
burg county, had a deputy who was the most 
domineering and insulting of all of them. 

One of these negro hunters at one time in 
Petersburg abused Thomas Hart, a peaceable man, 
calling him many abusive names. Hart did not 
want to fight him, but a stranger took it up and 
told the bully that he had gone too far, when the 
maddened brute turned on him and asked if he 
wanted to take it up ; if so he would serve him as 
all negro lovers deserved to be treated. As quick 
as a flash the stranger knocked the bully flat on 
the pavement and gave him such a thumping that 
he had to keep his bed at Jack Kinman's hotel for 
ten days. The man who so thoroughly thrashed 
the slave hunter was an assistant civil engineer 
on the Wabash and Erie canal. The late Dr. J. R. 
Adams of Petersburg, Indiana gave me the above 
incident. 

These boasting bullies had gone so far that 
it was resolved to give them a lesson in retaliation 
that they would remember for awhile. A secret 
meeting was held at my father's house at which 
a number of anti-slavery people were present. 
John Hanson, superintendent of the men working 
for the anti-slavery league, was in the meeting. 
After many suggestions, it was decided to hold a 
pretended meeting of 'The Sons of Liberty," an 

61 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

organization of free negroes in large northern 
cities at that time. The meeting was to be held 
in a building on a farm where a family of negroes 
named Booker lived, four miles south of where 
Oakland City now stands. The family of Bookers 
consisted of the brother and two sisters, all of 
whom were nearly as white as anyone. The broth- 
er entered into the arrangement willingly. 

The house they lived in had heavy doors and 
were barred every night, and Booker had almost 
an arsenal of fire arms. They lived in fear all 
the time of being kidnapped. Hanson said he 
would give us all the aid within his power and he 
would have two or three of his spies help us. These 
spies were all well known to the slave hunters, as 
they were very loud publically in their claim^s that 
slavery was right and that every negro should be 
in bondage. By the intimate relation they had 
with the negro hunters most of the plans of the 
kidnappers were known to the anti-slavery peo- 
ple, and in this way they were many times thwart- 
ed in their attempt to capture runaway negroes. 
The spies were to tell all the negro hunters known 
to them that on a certain night there was to be a 
meeting of "The Sons of Liberty" on the Booker 
farm; that there would be ten or twelve free ne- 
groes besides the Bookers there and all of them 
could be kidnapped and taken across the Ohio 

62 



KIDNAPPERS KIDNAPPED 

river before daylight the next morning, and then 
taken south and sold into slavery. They also 
said that there would be as much as $1,000 for 
each of the men engaged in the kidnapping. 

At that time there was a man living about 
two miles south of my father's place who had 
not been long from Kentucky, and who was a 
strong advocate of slavery. I often heard him say 
that all negroes should be in bondage, and that a 
negro had no soul and should be treated as a horse 
or an ox. This old bluffer was an elder in the 
church and was very loud in his prayers. I dan't 
think he ever failed to say, '*0h, Lord, incline the 
heart of the servants to obey their masters." His 
home was a resting place for the men hunting for 
fugitive slaves. These negro hunters went to this 
old fellow for information about the people in this 
section, and he came very near causing some of 
our neighbors to have serious trouble by his in- 
sinuations about what they had done. The spies 
made arrangements for those going in the raid 
on "The Sons of Liberty" meeting to gather at this 
old Kentuckian's house. 

Booker was very enthusiastic over the pros- 
pects of capturing the kidnappers. He went to 
Princeton and to the Cherry Grove neighbor- 
hood, three miles west of Princeton and 
got four stout negro men to agree to come 

63 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

to his house the day before the raid was 
to be made, so that they could have everything in 
readiness. The building was a double log one, the 
two rooms each being about sixteen feet square. 
A wide plank seat extended across two sides of the 
room in v/hich the meeting was to be held. About 
four feet was partitioned off one end of the room 
by hanging sheets across, behind which were a 
number of lighted candles. In the other room 
was an open fireplace in which a coal fire was 
burning. Quite a number of old rods and broken 
pitchforks tines were placed in the fire to be heat- 
ed. Everything being in readiness, the white men 
present blackened their faces and hands with wet 
powder and took their places behind the cloth 
screens. They did not have long to wait before we 
heard them coming near the door with a rush! 
One of the spies led the ten men and the other 
brought up the rear and when all were in the room 
the door was closed. This being a signal for the 
screen to fall and the negro kidnappers found 
themselves looking into the muzzles of twelve 
rifles. Our leader ordered them to hold up their 
hands and sent two of the Cherry Grove negroes 
to disarm them. Then he had them take off their 
coat's and vests, and handcuffed them with the 
same handcuffs that they had brought to manacle 
us with. One of the negroes, who could read, told 

64 




m^ 



THE RUNAWAY. 
Picture used in hand bills and newspaper advertisements. 



KIDNAPPERS KIDNAPPED 

the negro hunters that they had broken into our 
lodge uninvited and that they would have to be 
initiated as all others who entered there had been. 
The following oath was read to each and repeated 
by them; "1 solemly swear that I will never en- 
gage in any attempt to hinder a fugitive slave 
from gaining his freedom and I will never attempt 
to or aid others kidnapping a free negro, so help 
me God." They were then taken into the other 
room two by two. The spies were first. Our 
leader told them so that all could hear him that 
he believed that they piloted the other men to 
our lodge and they deserved death. The spies 
pleaded and begged the lodge m.en not to kill them. 
There was the sound of heavy licks as if they were 
being beaten to death. Finally their moaning 
ceased. They were placed under a table with their 
feet sticking out so as to be in plain view of the 
others as they were brought into the room, two 
at a time. Their left shoulders and breasts were 
made bare and they were branded with a deep 
burned cross on their shoulders and over their 
hearts. Our leader told them that the cross was 
one of the emblems of our order and that he want- 
ed them to always have a remembrance of their 
visit to our lodge. Their coats and vests were then 
burned full of holes which our leader told them 
was to show that among negroes poverty was no 

65 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

disgrace. There were four of these men who had 
been very mean and it was desired to give them 
some extra trimmings. The deputy sheriff from 
Vanderburg county and his "yoke fellow," a Ken- 
tuckian, were always together and had been the 
most insulting and domineering of the people trap- 
ped. They both had very long whiskers and prided 
themselves on their good looks. They were 
ordered to stand up when one of the negroes 
burned their beard off as short as he could with a 
red hot iron ! The other two who were very active 
in hunting fugitive slaves and kidnapping free 
negroes, were a hotel keeper, and one of his board- 
ers from Petersburg. John Stuckey told our lead- 
er they were bad gamblers, so the balls of their 
thumbs and first fingers were seared with a red 
hot iron so that they could not shuffle cards for 
a while. There was another big fellow from 
Petersburg who worked in the stable (or had 
charge of it) for the hotel man mentioned. The 
old Elder and this stable boss were handcuffed to- 
gether. There was in the party a doctor from 
Lynnville, and another who at that time lived east 
of Winslow — they got the cross brand ; there were 
also caught in the trap two young men who at 
that time lived near Princeton. In all there were 
ten men, besides the spies, who wanted to kidnap 
the negroes and sell them into slavery. 

66 



KIDNAPPERS KIDNAPPED 

The men who caught them were John Stuckey 
of Petersburg, Pink Adkins and Hiram Knight, of 
Logan township. Pike county; George Hill, our 
leader, and Ira Caswell from south of Lynnville, 
Warrick county; Wesley Simpson, W. B. Dill, 
Thomas Metcalf and myself, from eastern Gibson 
county; the four negroes from west of Prince- 
ton and Booker, at whose house the meeting was 
held. The men were taken back into the room 
where they were captured and the middle door 
was closed. The two spies came to life, got their 
horses, and turned all the horses of the negro 
hunters loose and drove them several miles away. 
The prisoners were all turned loose and ordered to 
go the way they came. The spies were sent to 
southeastern Indiana, as they could be of no furth- 
er use in this section. It was the intention to make 
the negro hunters believe the two men were killed. 
The men in disguise were perfect in their makeup ; 
the lights were tallow candles and made a dim 
light. All the work was done by the four negroes, 
under the direction of our leader, who, to all ap- 
pearances, was himself a big black negro. I be- 
lieve that the negro hunters thought all the lodge 
people were negroes. 

Some may think that the punishment inflicted 
on these slave hunters was cruel, but they should 
take into consideration the fact that these same 

67 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

men had kidnapped negroes who were as free born 
as they were and sold them into slavery for life. 

I doubt if there was ever such another per- 
formance in this or any other country. The only 
reason there was not great excitement about it 
was that the defeated bullies were ashamed to 
tell it, and we did not dare to tell it. 



68 



CHAPTER VIII 



WORKINGS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAIL- 
WAY AND SOME ENGAGED IN THE 
DANGEROUS WORK 

An explanation as to why we were so success- 
ful in aiding the fugitive slaves in gaining their 
freedom without being suspected: 

My father's family was believed to be in favor 
of slavery. He was born and raised in the south, 
and two brothers owned many slaves in the state 
of Mississippi. His twin sister married a man 
that owned 500 slaves in the rich Yazoo cotton 
country, in Mississippi, and his slaves were freed 
by Lincoln's proclamation. We found it best to 
do but little talking during the exciting times 
sixty years ago, made no confidants who were 
not known to be earnest, true men and in sympa- 
thy with the unfortunate slave. 

The dose we gave the kidnappers (explained 
in a former article) had a very quieting effect. 
They were not much in evidence for quite awhile ; 
even the old elder did not pray so loud and long 
for the Lord to incline the heart of the servant to 
obey his master. For quite a while the men 
hunting for runaway slaves were mostly from 

69 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Kentucky. About two hours before day in the 
early fall of 1853, loud hallooing was heard in 
front of our house at our front gate. My father 
opened the door and three men were there on 
horseback. They wanted to know if he had seen 
or heard anyone passing along the road early the 
evening before or during the night. He told them 
that he had neither heard nor seen anyone, and 
he asked them for whom they were hunting. The 
leader told him that eight negroes, five men and 
three women had crossed the Ohio river near 
Owensboro, Ky., two nights before. Tv/o miles 
back they had heard a noise in a thicket; had 
fired several shots and thought they heard some- 
one scream. My father told them that if the ne- 
groes crossed at Owensboro that the most likely 
route for them to take was by Winslow. The men 
held a short consultation, when one of them blew 
a loud blast on a horn, and shortly three more 
men rode up. They were quite a while in consul- 
tation, and then one of the men, apparently the 
leader, came into the yard and wanted to know if 
father had any one that he could let them have 
for a guide. We had three young men working 
for us. Father consulted with them, and one who 
was acquainted with the route agreed to go as far 
as the old McPaul place where the Princeton and 
Winslow road runs into the Petersburg and Boon- 

70 



WORKINGS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY 

ville road, two or three miles south of Winslow. 
Soon after the men had gone Geo. Hill of near 
Lynnville came up to the house. He said that the 
negroes were secreted in the corn field that came 
up to our barn; that there w^ere five negro men 
and three women and that one of the women had 
been wounded in the arm, while she was in hiding 
in the thicket where the slave hunters had heard 
the noise and did some shooting. That there were 
four white men and himself; two of them were 
Hansen's guards. Ira Caswell, who was one of 
the party, said that all were well armed and did 
not fear the slave hunters if the worst should 
come. 

We had a barn built out of peeled hickory 
logs 40 feet square and was floored with thick 
planks so we could use horses in tramping wheat 
out on it. Under the floor we had a cellar that we 
used for storing potatoes, turnips and apples. This 
building stood on the ground where Dr. George C. 
Mason now has his office and garage in Oakland 
City. The negroes were put into this cellar. The 
wounded woman was not badly hurt. It was only 
a flesh wound between the wrist and elbow. The 
negroes were in the cellar all the next day. I went 
to see Basil Simpson who lived near Dongola 
bridge to have him watch and see if any negro 
hunters came to watch the bridge that night. I 

71 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

also went to see Thomas Hart to have him bring 
his flat bottomed boat up to the upper end of the 
big bend about three-fourths of a mile below the 
bridge, so if the bridge was watched we could 
cross the negroes on the boat. W. B. Dill was 
working for us at the time. He was sent to Peters- 
burg with a letter for Dr. Posey, telling him that 
we would be there about 12 o'clock that night. 
After sending two men each way on the roads 
from our house for quite a distance to see that no 
one was on the watch, two wagons were brought 
out and the negroes got into them. Old wagon 
sheets were put in so if we met anyone they could 
cover themselves and hide under them. I drove 
one of the wagons and one of Hansen's guards 
drove the other. We had two men on horseback 
to accompany us, one in front and one behind, so 
that they could give us warning if there was any 
danger. We were well armed, the two Hansen 
guards had Sharp rifles, I had a squirrel rifle and 
the two outriders had good guns and there was 
one extra rifle in each wagon. Before we got to 
Dongola, the front out-rider came back to the 
wagons and said that he had heard someone talk- 
ing a little ways ahead. He went back up the 
road and found some boys coon hunting had 
crossed the highway. When we got to the bridge 
we met Mr. Simpson who told us that no one was 

72 



WORKINGS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY 

watching the bridge, but that there was a party 
a little way up the river who had a trot line out 
and that they were watching it. We had an agreed 
signal with Mr. Hart that if we could cross the 
bridge that we would fire two shots in quick suc- 
cession and he could leave the boat and come 
around the bend and meet us at the north edge of 
the bottom. We had gone but a little ways after 
leaving the bottom until we were overtaken by 
Thomas Hurt and Andy Atkins, both of them were 
firm friends (we were travehng on the Evansville 
and Petersburg road) . They said that they would 
go with us until we crossed the Winslow and 
Kirk's mill road. It was thought that the slave 
hunters who had gone to Winslow the night be- 
fore might have a patrol on that road. Every- 
thing went well until we came in sight of Haw- 
thorn's sawmill. It was lighted up and some ma- 
chinists were working on the machinery. We 
tried to find a way around but could not so we 
agreed the best way to do was to go boldly past. 
They were making so much noise about the ma- 
chinery that they did not even hear us. When we 
were within two miles of Petersburg we met John 
Stuckey. He told us that three negro hunting 
Kentuckians were at Jack Kinman's hotel asleep 
and that the other three had gone with a guide to 
Kinderhook to watch the aqueduct and that Dr. 

73 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Posey would meet us north of Thomas Davidson's 
residence. We met Dr. Posey and delivered the 
negroes to him. I well remember what the Doctor 
said to us when he had seen what a likely bunch 
we had brought. He said : *'Boys, you have made 
a good haul, Kentucky will the $8,000 poorer, but 
humanity will be three times $8,000 richer." We 
drove back home, tired and sleepy, too. 

Some may think it strange that we would go 
to so much trouble and risk for the poor negro. 
This was our reason and I feel glad that we did 
it: They are human beings, very much like you 
and I perhaps, with a little bit more of childish 
simplicity. They are possessed of fidelity, grati- 
tude, good humor and kindness, and have souls 
the same as you and I, and deserve to enjoy the 
great freedom of this country the same as you 
and I. 



74 



CHAPTER X 



CRAZY JEFF LEWIS 

On a large farm in the big leaf tobacco region 
of Northwestern Kentucky, there was a large num- 
ber of slaves and among that number was one 
that w^as a trusty helper named Jeff Lewis. He 
frequently acted as manager or overseer for 
his master. Late in the summer of 1853, they 
were storing tobacco in a large barn where it was 
to be cured by fire. Jeff was in the top with other 
help hanging the tobacco in the top tiers. Missing 
his foothold he fell to the ground floor fully 35 
feet, and was thought to be killed since he fell 
on his head. He was very badly hurt and it was 
several weeks before he showed any signs of com- 
to his right mind. Some time before Jeff got hurt, 
one of the underground railroad employes, who 
was peddling all through western Kentucky, had 
been on intimate terms with Jeff, and when he 
was so badly off and out of his mind he often called 
for this man, known as Job Turner. Finally Turn- 
er on his regular route come to Jeff's home which 
was a small log shanty on the big tobacco farm. 
Jeff knew his friend and was very glad to see him. 
Before this there had been some understanding 

75 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

between the two men. It was suggested by Jeff 
that in order to be useful to the cause, that it 
would be best for him when he was well, to ap- 
pear to be weak in his mind. After a few weeks 
Jeff was as well as ever, but was flighty in his 
mind. He went back to work on the farm but 
every three or four days he would be off in his 
head ; and at such times he would ride a pony that 
he had cared for and claimed, all over the neigh- 
borhood. He was harmless, but was known far 
and near as Crazy Jeff. Turner saw that there 
was a great opportunity through this shrewd ne- 
gro to do good work for the Anti-Slavery League. 
In his crazy spells Jeff would call for Turner many 
times. His master asked him to see Jeff and talk 
with him all that he could, so as to cheer him up, 
saying that he was much the best hand on the 
farm. This was the opportunity that they wanted 
to form their plans. It was agreed between the 
two that Jeff should see some negro that he knew 
some five miles away and that he should work on 
and try to influence them to gain their freedom. 
To do this and meet Turner's helpers at an agreed 
place, he had to have several crazy spells during 
the next 20 days, so many that his master consult- 
ed with him about going to the insane asylum to 
be cured. To this Jeff was opposed. He told. his 
master that the doctors would let him die just to 

76 



CRAZY JEFF LEWIS 

get to cut him up. He begged his master to let 
him stay on the farm and he would work all the 
time that he was not in the dark with his mind. 
His master knew that he would do more work 
than any two of his common helpers and be crazy 
two days in the week. He told his master that 
when he felt the spells coming on that he had to 
get away. He would ride his horse to the woods 
and hitch him to a sapling and lying down in the 
leaves or the grass would roll and tumble while 
the eclipse was coming on. After some hours he 
would feel the eclipse going off, then he would 
sleep for several hours and wake up all right. At 
the time agreed on Jeff was at the place with 
five likely negro men and one negro woman, the 
mother of three of the fugitives. Turner's two 
guards were there and took charge of the negroes 
and piloted them to the Ohio river west of Owens- 
boro where they found another guard waiting for 
them. The party landed on the north bank of the 
Ohio river some time after midnight and got about 
ten miles north of the river a while before day 
when they came to a large farm where they had 
threshed wheat the day before, and had scattered 
the straw over several acres of ground besides 
stacking several large stacks. This was an excel- 
lent place to hide. They did not have much pro- 
vision during the day, but all got a good supper at 

77 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Ira CaswelFs that night where one of the guards 
went during the day to notify him. Mr. Caswell, 
the three guards, and the six negroes got to Geo. 
Hill's in the early part of the night and made a 
forced march from there to my father's barn cel- 
ler where they rested all the next day until dark. 
Then they were loaded into two wagons and taken 
to Dr. Posey's coal bank, near Petersburg, Indiana. 
The night that Jeff was guiding the negroes to the 
agreed place of meeting. Job Turner was staying 
all night at his master's home. The next morning 
Jeff was on hands to work. 

The SIX negroes that ran away lived five or 
six miles from Jeff's home. It was several days 
before there was much said about the fugitives 
getting away, since this was a long time before 
telephones. I was told by Jeff long afterward that 
the masters never got the least clue which way or 
where they went, or how they got away. 

Turner and Jeff laid plans for Jeff to do his 
next work in a neighborhood some miles away in 
another direction. Jeff had from one to two crazy 
spells every week and took this opportunity to see 
the men he wanted to help gain their freedom. 
By the time that Turner got into that neighbor- 
hood again, Jeff had seven or eight that wanted to 
make the attempt to gain their liberties, but they 
were afraid that they would be run down and 

78 



CRAZY JEFF LEWIS 

captured by blood hounds, as a man living in that 
neighborhood owned six very vicious hounds and 
had captured with them several negroes that tried 
to run away. The owner kept the dogs for the 
money he made from capturing runaway negroes 
and criminals. They were valued at $50.00 each. 

The next thing to do was to get the dogs out 
of the way. Jeff, in the company of one of the 
negroes that were going to attempt to get away, 
went to the kennel one night and found the dogs 
were locked in a building twelve feet high and 
about thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide, with 
a roof over about one-half of it. The balance had 
no roof and was a playground for the dogs. The 
men aiming to run away held a meeting. It was 
decided to wait until Jeff could see Turner, w^hich 
would be during the next two weeks, and plan with 
him the best way to get rid of the dogs. When 
Turner learned the situation, he at once saw that 
the thing to do was to poison the dogs the night 
that the runaways left for the north ; but how to 
get the poison was the question. Turner said that 
he would see the superintendent of the anti-slav- 
ery league, Mr. Hansen, and have him get it for 
him, but it would be nearly two weeks before he 
could have it. The time soon came around and 
Turner was on hands with an ounce of strychnine. 
It was agreed that the night before they were to 

79 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

start two of the men would go possum hunting 
and secure a fine fat one, dress it nicely, cut it up 
and put strychnine on each piece. Early in the 
evening the wives of two of the men going north 
could throw it over the uncovered part of the ken- 
nel. There was a very old man that was the father 
of one of the women that was to feed the dogs who 
was to remain near the kennel and after waiting 
two hours, if there was any show of life, he was to 
give another dose. 

Jeff with seven negroes got to the meeting 
place about ten o'clock at night and found three 
guards waiting for them. In a short time they 
were on the march for the Ohio river which they 
crossed only a short time before daylight. 

The guards were aiming to get to a large 
thicket about 10 miles from the river, but they 
found that it would be broad day light before they 
could get that far. They came to a large corn- 
field and decided to risk that for a hiding place. 
It was a long day and they had at least ten miles 
to go before they came to Ira Caswell's which was 
the first station where they could get anything to 
eat. It was near nine o'clock at night when they 
met Mr. Caswell near his barn. He told them 
that they must be careful as there were two men 
from Boonville who had been seen twice that day 
just north of his farm. They were enquiring for 

80 




DR. JOHN W. POSEY. 

A Member of the Executive Committee of the Anti-Slaverjr 

League, whose coal-bank at Petersburg was a resting; 

place for hundreds of run-away negroes. 



CRAZY JEFF LEWIS 

stray horses. These men were notorious for 
their escapade in trying to capture run away ne- 
groes for the reward offered, and it was said that 
those same two fellows had kidnapped a young 
free negro and was trying to get him over the 
Ohio river to take him south. Fortunately they 
were defeated by two Kentucky women who had 
owned the mother of the boy and had freed her 
and the boy when he was two years old. The 
woman made the thieves give the boy into their 
keeping and took him to Evansville. About eleven 
o'clock that night the seven negroes, Mr. Caswell, 
and the three guards, got into Mr. HilFs corn- 
field that went up to his barn. Mr. Caswell went 
to the house and notified Mr. Hill the condition of 
things, Mr. Hill said that there were three men 
hunting runaway negroes in Lynnville nearly all 
that afternoon and they left town late in the even- 
ing. After a hurried consultation it was agreed 
to make a forced march to my father's barn cel- 
lar. Mr. Hill had a two-horse wagon and team for 
it, and there were two other horses that could be 
ridden; this made transportation for all but a 
little heavy in the wagon, but at the hills it could 
be lightened by the occupants walking up hill. It 
was just beginning to show signs of day coming 
when George Hill came to my father's door and 
told him that seven negroes and two guards were 

81 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

in the barn cellar and that one guard was in the 
upper barn loft on guard watching what went on 
in and around there. Mr. Hill went to bed and 
everything went on as it usually did and after 
breakfast we went on with our farm work. We 
still had the three colored boys that were waiting 
to get a chance to go to Liberia and that I have de- 
scribed in a former chapter. Everybody was on 
the lookout. The guards took regular turns in 
the top loft of the barn on guard duty where they 
could have a good view all over our big farm (on 
which now stands Oakland City, Ind.) Nothing 
unusual was seen or heard. When night came on 
we got out our teams and as a precaution put an 
old fishing boat on the front wagon with nets and 
fishing tackle of all kinds. We sent one of the 
guards to Dr. Posey during the day to notify him 
of our coming ; also sent word to Mr. Basal Simp- 
son to look out for bridge watchers at the Dongola 
bridge. Just as we got started we met a young 
man that Mr. Simpson had sent to notify us that 
three men were at the Dongola bridge. One of 
the guards acted as front out-rider and one watch- 
ed after the rear of our company. We had but 
little fear of any force that might attempt to in- 
terfere with us as we were all well armed, but we 
did not want to have any trouble as it would 
cause us trouble in our future operations. All 

82 



CRAZY JEFF LEWIS 

went well until we got near the bridge when our 
front guard came back and said that there were 
three men in the road near the bridge. Mr. Hill 
went forward and we drove up. Mr. Hill asked 
them what they wanted. They answered that 
they were hunting their negroes that had run 
away from them in Kentucky. They wanted to 
know who we were and where we were going. Mr. 
Hill told them that we were going on a fishing and 
hunting trip. Hill asked them how many negroes 
they had lost and they told him seven. Hill called 
to one of the guards and said : "Jim, was that the 
number seen in the woods by Joe Hensley near 
Winslow bridge about three o'clock this after- 
noon V The guard said it was. Hill told the slave 
hunters that if they were expecting to catch the 
negroes they should get to Winslow as soon as 
possible and if the negroes had crossed the bridge 
they could catch them before they crossed White 
river. If he was not with this hunting party he 
would be glad to go with them to see the fun. He 
told them further that there was a direct road to 
Winslow that we crossed about two miles farther 
on and if they wanted to go that way he would 
ride with them to the cross roads. They said they 
would go and soon had their horses. When we 
got to the cross roads we found Mr. Hill. He said 
that as soon as he put them on the right road they 

83 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

went at a good speed to the east. We found John 
Stuckey about two miles south of Petersburg; he 
told us that fugitives would have to cross White 
river about one mile east of Wright's ferry; that 
he had three skiffs put in the water there since dark 
and that there would be two wagons on the north 
bank to convey the negroes farther on. He furth- 
er told us that several negro hunters were at Jack 
Kinnian's hotel and that they had a guard at the 
aqueduct at Kinderhook. He also said that it was 
but a little way to the river and a bad road for 
wagons so that it would be best for the negroes to 
walk that distance. Hill said for fear of a slip in 
our calculation he would take two of the guards 
with him and go to the river and see them across 
and that if we could turn our teams and go back 
that he would overtake us before we were half 
way home. When we got home we found that Mr. 
John Hansen had come to my father's soon after 
we got started with the fugitives. Mr. Hansen 
had come from Evansville that day; he said that 
parties from Kentucky were there trying to get 
some clue of the missing negroes. They were tell- 
ing a fearful tale. They said that some one had 
poisoned six blood hounds. The next morning 
Hansen had the three guards, Mr. Hill and myself 
met him in my father's library. He cautioned us 
all under no circumstances to talk with any one, 

84 



CRAZY JEFF LEWIS 

not even if we knew he was in sympathy with our 
work. Our liberties and fortunes were at stake, 
and we could do better work to keep our own coun- 
sel. Mr. Hansen that morning gave me a bran new 
Sharp's breech-loading rifle. I have the gun yet. 

Jeff Lewis w^as a very bright colored mulatto 
and he had a wife that v/as as white as he was. 
She was owned by a man living near Uniontown, 
Kentucky, and was a house servant. Jeff had 
planned to get his wife away to Canada, but it was 
found to be a difficult proposition as she roomed 
in her master's home. She told Jeff that some 
time not long off her master and mistress 
were going to the neighborhood of Lexington, Ky., 
to attend the wedding of her mistress' sister and 
she would know the date in a short time. The 
house and farm would be left in the charge of an 
old trusted servant and it would then be easy to 
get her av/ay. Jeffs wife v/as well treated and 
she liked her master and mistress. Her master 
was a drinking man and often came home under 
the influence of liquor and it was reported that he 
was in failing circumstances. She was all the time 
in dread of his having to give up his property 
which might result in her being sold further south, 
into a life of drudgery. The excitement caused 
by the seven negroes running away and the killing 
of the six blood hounds was intense. The patrol 

85 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

force was tripled and every maia that was not 
known was stopped and made to give an account 
of himself. Men were riding all over that section 
of Kentucky hunting for a clue. Men were sent 
in bunches of three to many places in southern 
Indiana, but the only word they had that the ne- 
groes were ever seen after leaving home was what 
George Hill made up when he found three men 
guarding the Dongola bridge by telling them that 
seven negroes were seen near the Winslow bridge 
that day. These men when they got home told of 
this circumstance and said that when they went 
to Winslow they could not find anything about the 
the truth of the statement. They said that they 
tried to find the man that told them about the ne- 
groes being there, but could not find him. Mr. 
Hansen got word to Turner to go slow, that his 
work was well done, but he was in a dangerous sit- 
uation. If the Kentucians got the least clue that 
implicated him they would hang him as high as 
Haman. Turner was good grit as well as a very 
intelligent man. When he met any of the men 
who had lost their negroes, he would sympathize 
with them when they would abuse the abolitionists 
of the north for their misfortune. Jeff still had 
crazy spells. He and Turner had many talks lay- 
ing plans but both of them felt that it was best 
to be very careful until the time came for Jeff to 

86 



CRAZY JEFF LEWIS 

get his wife. There were three slaves that lived 
about three miles from Jeff's home that he wanted 
to liberate. Their owner had the patrol arrest 
him one time and had him whipped for talking 
back to him. For this Jeff wanted to even up. 
He met one of the slaves in a short time and made 
a date to meet him and the other two at an old 
church the next Sunday night where the negroes 
were to have a meeting. Jeff knew that Turner 
would be back on his return trip on Wednesday 
of the next week, after he was to meet the three 
negroes at the church. He intended to go and see 
his wife on Sunday before noon as he was allowed 
to see her twice a month. He found that his wife's 
mistress and master had been gone on their Lex- 
ington trip for five days and they intended to stay 
fifteen or twenty days. Jeff made an arrange* 
ment with his wife that she on the next Sunday 
afternoon was to visit a woman friend of hers 
not more than two miles from Walnut Branch 
Deek Lick, that she was to stay late and when she 
started home to go the main road until she came 
to a small cross road running to the east. This 
would take her in the right direction and Jeff 
would meet her before she got far and take her to 
the meeting place. Jeff had cut out a pretty big 
task for himself, but he was determined to carry 
it out if he had to pilot them to the Ohio river. He 

87 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

saw the three negroes Sunday night and they all 
agreed to meet him the next Sunday night at the 
Walnut Branch Deer Lick, a place only two miles 
away and well known to them. Jeff was off in his 
head Wednesday in the afternoon of that day. 
Turner came to his shanty to see him, when Jeff 
informed him of the big job that he had laid out 
to put through the coming Sunday night. Turner 
promised to have the three guards at the Deer 
Lick, Sunday night. Jeff had his Master to write 
his name on one of the saddle skirts, so if he was 
to die in some of his crazy spells his Master would 
get his horse. Jeff told the people on the planta- 
tion that he was going to church that night. He 
got his horse and saddled him, took an extra hat 
with him, and set out to meet his wife whom he 
soon found. He took her up behind him and rode 
to the Deer Lick where he found the three negroes 
and three guards. Shortly after they left the Deer 
Lick for the Ohio river. The byroad they were 
on went near the bank of Green river. Jeff took 
his horse and with a strong halter tied him secure- 
ly to a sapling and threw his best hat on the 
ground near the river bank. He aimed to make 
his master believe that he had drowned himself. 
Jeff thought this might delay pursuit for a while. 
It was near midnight when they got to the north 
bank of the Ohio river. Two of the guards were 

88 



CRAZY JEFF LEWIS 

well acquainted with the country to the north 
along the route they intended going. They aimed 
to reach a very large thicket about 10 miles from 
the river that I have described in a former chap- 
ter. It was yet some time until daylight when 
they got to the dense thicket, which they went 
into a long way from the road where they found 
plenty of leaves and grass to make good beds. 
Soon all were asleep except one of the guards who 
kept a good lookout to see what, went on around 
them. Soon after getting into camp another one 
of the guards went to Mr. Caswell's to notify him 
so that they would have food prepared when the 
fugitives got there that night as the aim was to 
push on to my father's barn cellar. 

Nothing happened during the day worthy of 
note. When night came, everybody was rested and 
ready for the march. When they got to Mr. Cas- 
well's they found Mr. George Hill there. He had 
been notified by Mr. Caswell. As soon as supper 
v/as eaten, they were on the go in charge of Mr. 
Hill, who took them a route more to the west than 
formerly coming through on a blind road that 
ran over the McGregor hills east of Somerville, 
Ind. They had no trouble and about 4 o'clock 
they arrived at our farm and all went into the 
barn cellar, except Mr. Hill and one of the guards. 
My father told Mr. Hill that several strange men 

89 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

had been seen riding around the neighborhood the 
last two or three days pretending to be buying 
mules and horses. About noon the day that the 
negroes were placed in the cellar Mr. J. J. Kirkman 
then sheriff or deputy sheriff of Gibson county 
came to our house and stayed for dinner. Our three 
colored boys were still working on the farm. Mr. 
Kirkman saw one of the boys as he put his horse 
up and fed it. He asked my father about the 
boys and was told that they had been left in his 
charge until they could be sent to Liberia. At din- 
ner Mr. Hill was introduced to Mr. Kirkman as a 
practical steam engineer. He asked Mr. Kirk- 
man if there was any chance for an engineer to 
get work in Princeton. After dinner Mr. Kirk- 
man and my father went to the library and were 
there for some time. He told my father that the 
reason he was here was to warn him (they were 
old friends and of the same political party). He 
said that an old Kentuckian living a few miles 
south of our home was in Princeton recently and 
was telling that he had three negro boys who were 
really slaves; that he would not let any one see 
them ; that two men came after the boys and that 
my father had run them off with a gun, and had 
repeatedly threatened to shoot any one who dared 
to try to get the boys. (This was the same old 
fellow that I gave a description of in a former 

90 



CRAZY JEFF LEWIS 

chapter who was always very loud in prayer and 
never failed to put in "Oh Lord, incline the hearts 
of the servants to obey his master-") When Mr. 
Kirkman was ready to go my father had a horse 
saddled and rode with him for several miles to see 
if anything unusual was going on. It was quite 
dark before we commenced to get ready to go 
farther north. Mr. Hill and two of the guards had 
been all around our farm to see if the way was 
clear. The wagons were brought out of the bam 
and loaded. One of them had the old fish boat 
and fishing tackle on it, as it had the last time 
that we went, since we thought that we might 
have to claim again being on a fishing and hunt- 
ing expedition. We had heard from Mr. Simpson 
during the afternoon that there was no one about 
the bridge and if they came later he would let us 
know. Jeff and his wife were surprising happy. 
She stood the march as well as any of them. The 
other three negroes were in good shape but they 
were awfully afraid their master would overtake 
them and they believed if he did he would kill 
them. Jeff told them that they had to swim a 
river three hundred yards wide. One of them 
could not swim and he felt sure he would be cap- 
tured. The man we sent to see Dr. Posey could 
not find him, but he did find John Stuckey and he 
told him that we would have to do the same way 

91 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

as we did with the last lot — cross the river east 
of Wright's ferry; that he would be at the point 
where we left the main road and pilot us to the 
river ; that he had found a way that we could get 
to the river with v/agons by going through the 
corner of a field that had not been cultivated that 
year. When we got to the river we found two 
lusty strong men in skiffs to take the fugitives 
over. Bidding us goodby, they went into the skiffs 
and were soon on the other bank. We waited un- 
til they were in the wagon and under way to the 
next station. Mr. Stucky told us that there were 
so m.any men in town every day hunting for run- 
away negroes that it was not safe at present to 
put them in Dr. Posey's coal bank. He also said 
that the Kinderhook aqueduct was guarded every 
night. When we got back home the chickens were 
crowing for day. 

Eleven years had gone by and a great change 
had come over this country. Hot headed southern- 
ers had brought on a war hoping to dissolve the 
Union. Hundreds of battles had been fought and 
many thousands of good men had been killed and 
hospitals all over the country were full of wound- 
ed men. Mr. Lincoln had freed the negroes. Late 
in the fall of 1864 I was commanding the military 
prison at Nashville, Tenn. A guard brought a 
prisoner to the office and handed me the committ- 

92 



CRAZY JEFF LEWIS 

ment paper. I read a name, "Jeff Lewis, first 
Sergeant, Co., I, 17 U. S. Colored Troops," charged 
with shooting at an officer. I turned around and 
looked at the prisoner, and was sure it was the 
same Jeff Lewis that I knew. I receipted for him 
and told him to come inside the railing and take 
a seat. I turned to him and said: "Sergeant, I 
want you to tell me all that you know about this 
case." He said that he was walking along Union 
street with another member of his company, when 
he saw that there were many soldiers with their 
accoutrements on lying and sitting on the side- 
walk. As he got opposite to them a Lieutenant 
stepped in front of him. He evidently was pretty 
drunk and said, "You are two pretty tony dressed 
damned negroes, and stepped in front of me and 
spit a mouthful of tobacco juice on the breast of 
my uniform ( I looked and it was plain to be seen) . 
He followed me up and kicked me twice. I pulled 
my revolver and shot him in the leg. I did not 
want to kill him, although he deserved it." I sent 
an orderly to the prison and had the prison ser- 
geant come to me. He was one of my own soldiers 
and I knew would do just what I said for him to 
do. I told him that this prisoner and I were old 
friends and I wanted him to assign him the bed 
and the little room next to the one he had. I got 
the name of the soldier that was with him when 

93 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

he shot the drunken Lieutenant. Lewis seemed 
surprised at what I had told the prison sergeant. 
He did not have the least idea who I was, but I 
knew him by his name. I told him to go and have 
a good night's sleep. I went to see Col. Hunter 
Brooks the Provost Marshal and got a copy of the 
charges preferred against Jeff Lewis. I then went 
to General John F. Miller's office, the post com- 
mander, I there found Captain Livingston How- 
land of Indianapolis, Adjutant General on Gen- 
eral Miller's staff. I explained the situation to 
him, gave a history of Jeff's work, and got from 
him the name of the officer Jeff had shot and the 
command that he belonged to. I went to the 
hospital and saw the doctor in charge of the hos- 
pital and he said the lieutenant was crazy drunk 
when they brought him to the hospital, raving like 
a maniac, declaring that he would kill every ne- 
gro soldier he could, after he got well. I wrote a 
note to the captain of the company that the lieu- 
tenant belonged to and asked him to call at my 
office. I then made out charges against the lieu- 
tenant charging him with conduct unbecoming an 
officer and a gentleman and had three specifica- 
tions to the charge. First, that he was drunk in 
a public street in the city of Nashville, Tenn., and 
while he was on duty; second, that he abused 
Sergeant Jeff Lewis by using vulgar language 

94 



CRAZY JEFF LEWIS 

about him and spitting tobacco juice on him ; third, 
that he kicked the said Sergeant Lewis. During 
the day the captain of the company that Lieu- 
tenant Jones belonged to came to see me. I 
made many inquiries about the lieutenant and 
found that he got drunk as often as he could get 
the whiskey. I showed the captain the charges 
I had and he said it all could be proved. The cap- 
tain suggested on account of his widowed mother 
that it would be best to let him resign, and he 
further said the sergeant did nothing but what 
he should have done. He was as much a soldier 
as the Heutenant was. The resignation (for the 
good of the service) was received and forwarded 
to department headquarters. The charge against 
Jeff Lewis was destroyed by the order of General 
John F. Miller and the sergeant ordered to re- 
turn to duty with his company. I sent to the 
prison for Lewis and told him that he was free. 
I then told him about the day he with his wife and 
other fugitives spent in my father' barn cellar 11 
years ago. Jeff told me that Canada was so cold, 
that as soon as Mr. Lincoln's proclamation was 
issued, he brought his wife and came to the city 
of Evansville, Ind., that his wife was staying with 
some colored people in that city (giving me the lo- 
cation) while he was to be in the army, but that 
she was not satisfied there. I told him that Judge 

95 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

A. L. Robinson was always a friend to the colored 
people and if he wanted me to, I would have him 
look after her for him. He said he would be 
glad to have me do so. I wrote to Judge Robin- 
son and he took her into his home as a maid to 
help his wife. I then asked Jeff if he would like 
to be in the Freedman's Bureau at Washington; 
that I felt sure through Mr. Hansen I could get 
him and his wife both permanent places at good 
wages. He said he would be glad to go. I wrote 
to Mr. Hansen who was acquainted with Jeff's 
history and found that he could give both of them 
a place at good wages as soon as they could come. 
I went to see General Miller, who sent for Jeff's 
captain and explained to him the nice position 
that Jeff could get in the Freedman's Bureau at 
Washington. Gen. Miller asked the captain to dis- 
charge him so he could receive promotion. Soon 
his discharge came and Jeff came to me and I se- 
cured transportation for him andi, his wife to 
Washington, D. C. where they arrived in due time 
and were put to work by Mr. Hansen. Jeff told 
me that the owners of the slaves that he helped 
free never had the least clue how they went or 
where they went; that his master was dead and 
the master of his wife was broken up and was in 
the Confederate army; that the man that owned 

96 



CRAZY JEFF LEWIS 

the three negroes that he helped escape to even 
up with him, was killed at Shiloh, on the Confed- 
erate side. 



97 



CHAPTER X 



BEN SWAIN 

There was a station a little east of Rock- 
port, Ind., where many negroes were crossed over 
the Ohio river. The man having charge of this 
station was a book agent and a peddler of fine 
stationery and fine pen holders and pencils. He 
also took subscriptions for periodicals published 
both in the north and south. His name was Henry 
Johnson. He traveled over an extensive ter- 
ritory. He had been at that station for quite a 
while and was acquainted with many people of 
both colors on his route. Johnson had a helper 
in a middle aged negro named Ben Swain. The 
two men had sent quite a number of slaves on 
their northern march who got to Canada. Ben 
met Johnson one night and told him that he had 
quite a number who would be ready to go in the 
next ten days. They selected the old Hanels to- 
bacco barn as the place to meet; it was situated 
near a small road that ran to the river and set the 
time for Thursday night a week. Johnson told 
Ben that he would have guides at the barn at that 
time. The next morning Ben hunted Johnson up 
and told him that after he saw him last night John 

98 



BEN SWAIN 

Ray, a nearly white negro, came to see him and 
wanted him to make arrangements with him to 
help persuade a good number of slaves to meet 
at some place not too far away, to be sent to Can- 
ada and freedom. Ray told Ben that this ar- 
rangement was put on foot by quite a number of 
white men who owned slaves. The plan was that 
when the negroes started on their march they 
were to go by a place where the white men were 
in ambush, so that they could capture and hand- 
cuff the negroes and make them promise that they 
never would attempt to escape again. That if 
they did they would be sent to the Mississippi 
country and sold to men owning large cotton plan- 
tations. There was nothing that a Kentucky ne- 
gro di^eaded more than the thought that he might 
be sold to negro owners farther south. Ben and 
Johnson consulted together and it was arranged 
that Ben should agree to help on the condition 
that as Ray was very unpopular with the negroes 
that Ben should select those that were to go and 
that the meeting place was to be at the Gray 
Rock quarry at the same time agreed on between 
Johnson and Ben at a former meeting only at a 
time two hours later than the meeting at HaneFs 
tobacco barn. Ben went to see Ray and had him 
to go with him early as he wanted to have every- 
thing in good shape. He had arranged for several 

99 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

negroes to meet him at Haniaers tobacco barn and 
they would go by there and take them over to Gray 
Kock quarry. When the two men got to the tobacco 
bam they found quite a lot of negroes and five 
white men who were guides. They were soon put 
in marching order and started. It had been ex- 
pected that Ray, when he found that he had been 
tricked, would attempt to get away so there were 
two strong negro men selected to see that he went 
along. He called to Ben to know what this meant. 
He was told that they were going to take him to 
Canada and free him. Ray said that he did not 
want to be free, that his master was going to free 
him in two years and give him a horse and saddle 
and that several white men had agreed to make 
him up $50.00 for getting up this gathering. They 
had gone but a little ways when Ray attempted 
to run away. The two men caught him and tied 
his hands behind him. He then commenced to 
make all the noise he could, when a gag was tied 
in his mouth. In this way they went until they 
got to where the skiffs were to cross the river. 
The two guards asked Ray if he would go along 
quietly if they would untie his hands. He nodded 
his willingness, but as soon as his hands were un- 
tied he drew a large knife and tried to kill one of 
the two men that had him in charge, when the 
other one hit him with a heavy club that ended 

100 



BEN. SWAIN 

his career. He was thrown into the river and the 
rest of the party went across the river and on to 
a large cornfield, some ten miles north where they 
went in to stay until night should come on. There 
were 12 negro men and five guards in the party. 
They were not disturbed and put in the day sleep- 
ing and resting. As soon as it was night they 
were on the march, aiming to cross the Patoka 
river before daylight between what is now Velpin 
and Winslow. When they got to the river they 
found that it was swollen by recent rains, and 
they could not find any place to cross, so they went 
into a thick brushy place as daylight was com- 
ing. The brush was very thick and made a good 
place to hide, but there was not more than two 
acres in it. The bottom on all sides except the 
side next to the river was very open. This was 
the only place that furnished a screen to hide 
in that they could find. After they got into camp 
they found that their supply of provisions was 
getting low and they had no certain assurance of 
getting any more before they got near the north 
side of Daviess County. 

The guards remembered that they had 
nassed a nice looking farm house only a little way 
from the edge of the river bottoms, so it was de- 
cided to send two of the guards there to see if 
they could purchase some provisions. They found 

101 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

the farmer and his family (who was one of the 
numerous families of Corns living in that part of 
Pike County, Indiana,) and had no trouble in pur- 
chasing all the bacon that they neeaea. The bread 
question was the thing that they did not know 
how to solve. They finally made a bargain with 
the farmer's wife to bake them a good supply of 
corn and flour bread. Mr. Corn inquired who 
they were and what they were doing. They told 
him that they were mineralogists looking over 
this country to find how much mineral wealth 
there was in it, in the way of coal and building 
stone. They went back to their hiding place with 
the provisions, all had a good dinner and soon all 
were asleep, except one guard left on duty to 
watch over the camp. 

Everything was very quiet until about one 
hour before sundown, when the guard on duty 
awakened the other guards and told them that 
several men on horseback were approaching the 
camp, coming along a bypath that run along the 
river bank. When they got v/ithin about seventy- 
five yards the guard stepped out of the thicket and 
ordered them to halt. They all stopped and asked 
the guard what he was doing there. He told them 
he was a mineralogist working over the country 
and this was their camp. One of the horsemen 
dismounted and said that he wanted to see what 

102 



BEN SWAIN 

this fellow was up to. He came up within about 
twenty feet of the guard who ordered him to halt. 
The advancing fellow said, "do you know who I 
am ? I am the deputy sheriff and I have authority 
to arrest all suspicious characters that I meet 
and I am going to arrest you !" Jerking out an old 
pepper box revolver that was used at that time 
he started toward the guard, who unslung a 
Sharp's rifle and pointed it at the deputy's head. 
This stopped him. By this time the other four 
guards were on hands with their guns ; one of them 
took the pistol away from the threatening fel- 
low and threw it into the river; also took an old- 
fashioned dirk knife from him and threw it into 
the river. They then about faced the raving fel- 
low and told him to go back to his horse. They 
soon were all gone back the way they had come. 
A drift was found a little way up the river that 
lacked but a few feet of crossing. Soon some old 
stakes were gotten and pieced out the space so 
that it made a good footbridge. As soon as it was 
twilight they went over the river on the drift and 
were marching away for White river, that they 
aimed to reach before midnight. There was noth- 
ing important happened until they got near where 
the town of Algiers now stands. They ran up 
against a regular spelling bee ; horses and wagons 
were hitched on all sides of the school house. The 

103 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

guides and fugitives had to go quite a way around 
the school house before they would venture to go 
in the road again. Before midnight they got to 
the river a little west of north from where Otwell, 
Pike County, stands. They went along a river 
road to the east for quite a distance when they 
came to a regular logging camp where men had 
been putting logs into rafts. The guards selected 
out four large dead poplar logs and rolled them 
into the river ; some grape vines were secured and 
the logs tied together. They had a raft that with 
the aid of a setting pole and two or three four-foot 
clapboards, held up the seventeen men and land- 
ed them on the north bank of the river. They 
were soon on their way to the next station which 
was near the north line of Daviess county. 
When the guards got to that station, four of them 
returned to their stations on the Ohio river. One 
guide who had been several times over the route 
with fugitives remained to pilot them to a point 
near Lake Michigan where they were taken in 
charge by the men that were to land them into 
Canada. The deputy sheriff and party were hunt- 
ing for three runaway negroes for which there 
was a large reward offered. When they got back 
to Petersburg and told of the adventure they had 
had with the five men who had such fine guns, 
they were told of an old tradition that the first 

104 



BEN SWAIN 

settlers had gotten from the Indians; that some 
place up on the Patoka river there was a rich sil- 
ver mine, that the white people had hunted for 
many times without success. It was generally be- 
lieved that the guards were there hunting for 
the mine and did not intend that any one should 
know what they were up too. 

Ben Swain who lost his life trying to aid his 
race was a man more than 50 years old. He was 
intellegent and trustworthy. The night that the 
two negroes had to kill John Ray on the bank of 
the Ohio river in self defense the guard that had 
charge of the men, tried to persuade Ben to go 
on with them and gain his freedom. Swain said 
no, that he had some friends that he wanted to 
aid before he went and if he did not get away it 
would not matter much as he was getting old, 
and he wanted to work as long as he could help his 
race. 



105 



CHAPTER XI 



SAM LYNN 

Sam Lynn was a very strong resolute man. 
His father had been smuggled into Cuba with 
many others by men engaged in the African slave 
trade. They kidnapped their victims in the wilds 
of Africa, and sold them to the Spanish planters 
in Cuba and planters on other West India Islands, 
and many times on the southern coast of the Unit- 
ed States. 

His mother was a full blooded Choctaw In- 
dian woman. These Indians before they were 
colonized in the Indian territory, lived on the 
southern borders of the state of Mississippi. Sam 
was owned and lived with John Lynn, and took his 
name from his master. They lived near the Lou- 
isiana line. Sam's mother and father were dead 
and left four children, three boys and one girl. 
Sam and his sister belonged to Mr. Lynn; the 
other two brothers were owned by a Mr. Johnson 
and they all lived near each other. They were 
strong healthy negroes, and worked every day on 
the plantations. Sam's master hired him to a 
sugar planter for three or four months work on 
a sugar plantation in Louisiana. One day in load- 

106 



SAM LYNN 

ing a heavy hogshead on a wagon, Sam stepped on 
the overseer's foot; this enraged him and he 
kicked Sam who kicked him in return. They kept 
up a running fight for some minutes around the 
sugar house. Finally the overseer drew a large 
knife and said, no "nigger" could hit him and Hve, 
and made a lunge at Sam who hit him over the 
head with a stick of wood and killed him. Sam 
knew that they would have him hung if they got 
him. The overseer's horse was hitched to a fence 
near the sugar house and it only took Sam a min- 
ute until he had the horse loose and was on his 
back and away toward home which was thirty 
miles away. It was late in the evening when this 
happened. Sam got to his master's home before 
midnight and told his master what he had done. 
His master knew that the authorities would be af- 
ter him as soon as possible. Sam was a valuable 
negro, worth at least fifteen hundred dollars. Mr. 
Lynn was at a loss to know what was best to do. 
He believed by Sam's statement that the overseer 
brought the trouble on himself and Sam was not 
to blame. He felt that he was doing the right 
thing to try to save Sam. Mr. Lynn had a cousin 
living in Ohio County, Kentucky that owned 
slaves. It was a long ways to travel, but he re- 
solved to try it. He told Sam to feed the tired 
horse and get out his best horse and be ready to 

107 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

travel in thirty minutes. Sam was to ride the 
overseer's horse some fifty miles and then turn 
him loose and he would go home to the sugar mill, 
then Sam would have to walk. Word was left by 
Mr. Lynn that he had gone to New Orleans. As 
no one had seen Sam, they would know nothing 
about his being home ; this would make them hunt 
for him in the country surrounding the sugar mill. 
It was a long and tiresome trip but they finally 
got to the neighborhood where his cousin lived. 
They told Mr. Lynn that the man that he was in- 
quiring about owned a very large tobacco farm 
and twenty-five negroes and that he was a drink- 
ing man and very quarrelsome when under the in- 
fluence of whiskey. Mr. Lynn did not let any one 
know that he was related in any way to him. His 
intention had been to hire Sam to him and leave 
for home, but what he had heard was so unfav- 
orable he did not know what was best to do. He 
concluded to go and see him. He found a man 
showing evidence of being a hard drinker and 
very brutal in his looks. Sam was with his mas- 
ter. He went up to Sam and examined his arms 
and said to Mr. Lynn, "This boy would make a 
good field hand why do you have him for a body 
servant." Mr. Lynn said that he had not thought 
of selling him. Sam got a chance (while the to- 
bacco farmer was talking with some men who 

108 



SAM LYNN 

called to see him) to say to his master to sell him 
and get all that he could for him and leave the 
rest to him. When the cousin came back to Mr. 
Lynn he said that he was in great need of a good 
strong young man and he would give the full val- 
ue for Sam. Mr. Lynn asked him what he thought 
would be a fair price for such a slave. His cousin 
said that from twelve to fifteen hundred dollars. 
Mr. Lynn told him that he could have him for fif- 
teen hundred dollars. This was agreed to and 
Sam changed masters. Mr. Lynn had a talk with 
Sam before he was sent to the negro quarters. 
Sam said to his master to have no fears of his 
being badly used, as he would take care of him- 
self. Mr. Lynn returned to his Mississippi home 
and Sam went to work in the great tobacco barn. 
Mr. Lynn's cousin, Marshal Ford, had a very fine 
family of educated people. Ford's drinking spells 
were carried on when he was away from home. 
Henry Johnson was always a welcome guest. He 
was an accomplished musician and the two 
daughters of the family were well educated in 
music. They had many pleasant evenings togeth- 
er. The musical instrument that they owned was 
getting old so the girls persuaded their father to 
get them a new one. Mr. Johnson was commis- 
sioned by the father to select a good piano and 
have it sent to the nearest landing on the river 

10<^ 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

to their home; from there it had to be hauled in 
a wagon. Mr. Johnson was there when the piano 
arrived and helped to set it up. It was very heavy 
and required the help of several men to put it in. 
Among the help was Sam Lynn. He was so tre- 
mendously strong that he attracted the attention 
of Johnson who later talked with Ben Swain about 
him. Ben was acquainted with him and said that 
Sam had talked to him about wanting to gain his 
freedom. Swain said that Sam was so recently 
from the far south that he did not know much 
about the country he now lived in but he was 
ready to do anything to gain his freedom. Ben 
told Johnson if he wanted to talk with Sam to 
make a date and place and he would have him 
there. Johnson would not be back in that sec- 
tion for ten days so he made a date to correspond 
with the time of his return at the old vacant to- 
bacco barn near Mr. Ford's farm. The time soon 
came around, Johnson found the two negroes there 
and they talked a long time about runaway ne- 
groes and the danger that they were all in who 
in any way aided them. Johnson asked Sam about 
Mr. Ford's negroes. Sam said that they were the 
most ignorant lot that he had ever seen. That 
they actually did not have the least idea where 
Canada was, nor whether it was a country or a 
town. They had been so completely kept in dark- 

110 



SAM LYNN 

ness that he had to pretend that he too was as 
ignorant as the rest of them in order to get along 
with the overseer. It was understood between 
the three that Swain would see Sam when he 
could be of any service that he would have Sam 
help him ; and wheji all the work that they dared 
to do in that section was done they would help 
Sam to gain his freedom. It was getting late and 
they separated. Ben and Sam went away togeth- 
er and Johnson slipped away back to a little room 
that he had rented from a poor widow woman. 
Sam and Ben were walking along the main road, 
when three men who were patrols stepped into 
the road from a bunch of bushes and confronted 
them. Ben started to run when one of the pa- 
trols shot him in the back of his head with a heavy 
charge of buck shot. Sam wrenched the gun from 
the patrol's hand and knocked him down with it; 
one of the other two were trying to stop him when 
he, with the gun barrel, laid him in the road. The 
other man was trying to shoot him with an old 
pepper-box revolver that would not go off. Sam 
took it from him and knocked him down with it 
and kicked him until he thought he was dead. 
There were four men within a space of ten steps 
laying in the road apparently all dead. Sam went 
to Ben and was certain that he was dead. He 
hurriedly left the place and went directly to his lit- 

111 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

tie room, examined his clothes to see that there 
was no blood on them. The men lay in the road 
the rest of the night and until a negro who was 
hunting his mules that had got out found the 
men and gave the alarm. Squire Bodin who lived 
near the scene of this fearful tragedy was noti- 
fied and he had his warrant officer or constable 
summon a jury to assemble at the point where the 
four bodies lay. They found two men dead, Ben 
Swain and the first man hit with the gun by Sam. 
The other two were so badly off that they did not 
know anything. This raised great excitement in 
all that section. There was not the least evidence 
to be had except the ghastly sight that was before 
them. The two badly wounded men were some 
three or four days before they could give an in- 
telligent account of the dreadful encounter that 
they had. One said: ''There were two negroes, 
one of them a medium sized man the other an 
awful big man full seven feet high. The little 
man as soon as they stepped into the road start- 
ed to run and was shot by their leader, when the 
great giant wrested the gun from him and 
knocked him dead with it. Then he turned on 
me and hit me a terrible blow that laid me out. 
The other patrol was trying to help me when the 
giant knocked him down and beat him into jelly.'* 
They stuck to their statement and it was believed 

112 



SAM LYNN 

that a tame gorilla was with Ben that night and 
had done all that terrible work 

Sam was working in the tobacco barn and 
saw no one except the hands working with him. 
Things went on this way for two weeks when one 
of the hands told Sam that one of the patrols said 
that the one that hurt him was a very broad 
shouldered thick necked negro and was as strong 
as a horse. This alarmed Sam for the descrip- 
tion tallied with his makeup and and he was afraid 
that when the patrolmen got so they could get 
about, they might conclude that the negro that 
done them up was not seven feet high, and in some 
way work him into it. One evening just after 
dark he met Mr. Johnson going up to the big 
house and told him his fears and asked him if 
he could have a guide m.eet him some place and 
take him over the Ohio river. Johnson said that 
the next night he would ''have two guides at the 
big tobacco barn, with half the roof blown off 
three miles from here, you and Ben visited there 
one Sunday not long ago. Be sure and be there 
by 8 o'clock at night ; there will be two other men 
and their wives and three children from 10 to 14 
years old to go at the same time." The morning 
before he was to start to run away, the two pa- 
trols come to his master's house and had Sam sent 
for. They both took a good look at him. One of 

113 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

them said he believed it was the man the other 
said that he did not think so. Mr. Ford, Sam's 
master, was away from home and had been for 
several days. The overseer was the one that was 
consulted who said it would do no harm to have 
Squire Bodin have his warrant man arrest Sam 
and they would go over the case and it might 
bring out some clue that would put them on the 
track of getting the right man. Mrs. Ford had 
learned from the overseer that Sam was likely to 
be arrested and she told the overseer that he had 
best have nothing to do with it, if he did he would 
have trouble with Mr. Ford when he got home. 
It had gone too far to be recalled by this time. It 
was about four o'clock in the evening when one of 
Sam's workmates in the barn learned that they 
were aiming to arrest Sam after supper and have 
a night trial in a little office of Squire Bodin. Sam 
took a heavy tobacco screw pin made of hickory 
and dodged around the building until he got to a 
thick wood-lot Vv^hen he made the best time that 
he could for some distance. In crossing the main 
road at the end of the wood-lot he was within 
fifteen feet of a man that owned two blood hounds. 
The man was returning home which was just 
across the lane from Squire Bodin's house. Sam 
knew that it would not be half an hour before the 
dogs would be after him and he wanted to lead 

114 



SAM LYNN 

the men away from the old tobacco barn where he 
was to be at 8 o'clock; it was now after five. As 
the dog man rode up to his house he met the con- 
stable who told him that he was then going to ar- 
rest one of Mr. Ford's negroes. The dog man told 
him what he had seen. Squire Bodin was called 
and the same was told him when he ordered the 
constable to deputize the man and his dogs and 
try to capture the culprit. lu a little while the 
loud bay of the dogs as they run very fast on the 
trail of Sam, was heard. He led them away from 
the meeting place and into a thick country that 
horsemicn would have to go slow over. The dogs 
were soon close to Sam and baying very loud. One 
was several rods ahead. Sam got in a good place 
where he had plenty of room and where there was 
no brush. As the dog came within reach he hit 
him with the deadly bludgeon that he carried and 
as the second came up killed him. Then he turned 
his course and went to the tobacco barn with half 
the roof blown away, where he found seven ne- 
groes and two guides. They were soon on the go 
for the river. It was after one o'clock when they 
were landed on the northern shore. At the river 
they received another guide, or guard, that had 
several times been over the route that they were 
to go. They started on the main road that led 
north, aiming to get to a large corn field about 

115 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

ten or twelve miles away; this would take them 
southwest of Taylorsville, now Selvin. This large 
cornfield had in one corner about two acres of 
Spanish needles that was more than four feet high 
and as thick as they could grow. It was near day- 
light when they got there. They found it a good 
place to rest and sleep which they needed. They 
were not disturbed until about four o'clock in the 
evening when one of the guards awakened the 
other guards and told them that he saw three men 
that seemed to be tracking them. They got over 
the fence where the fugitives did and were track- 
ing them up toward the weed patch. The three 
guards blackened their faces as that was a stand- 
ing order for them to do when they were likely 
to come in contact with white men, as it was aimed 
to make them believe that it was the negroes do- 
ing the work. When they got up within about 
50 yards they were halted by the guards and ask- 
ed what they wanted. They said that they were 
looking for runaway negroes and thought that 
they had found them. The guard ordered them 
to come no further. They said, ''what do you, a 
black negro, have to do with where we want to go. 
We are prepared to defend ourselves." "So are we," 
the guard replied, "and if you some any nearer you 
will be hurt." Sam asked the guards to let him 
go out to them and pretend to hold a parley with 

116 



SAM LYNN 

them, that he was satisfied he could clean out the 
whole bunch. The guard told them that if they 
wanted them to, they would send out one of their 
men to talk to them. They said to send him along. 
Sam got up and with his club for a walking stick 
hobbled out toward where the three men were 
standing. He appeared to be so lame that he could 
hardly walk and seemed to lean on the walking 
stick. When he got up to the men he asked what 
they wanted. They told him that they had au- 
thority to arrest and return fugitive slaves to 
their masters, and that they were satisfied that 
they were run-away slaves as they found their 
tracks five miles back and had followed them to 
this field. Sam had been looking them over, while 
the foreman was talking, and saw that they had 
no arms, unless it was revolvers in their pockets. 
Sam said to him, * Vhat will you do if we don't sur- 
render to you ?" ''Then we will capture you." "You 
will find that you will have a big job on your 
hands," said Sam. The leader replied: "We will 
show you by taking you now," and started for 
Sam, who was over his lameness in a moment 
and hit the advancing slave-hunter on the side 
of his head and downed him; the next was 
knocked down before he could m.ove from his 
place ; the third one tried to draw a revolver, but 
had his arm broken and the revolver knocked ten 

117 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

feet away; the broken armed man commenced 
to yell ''murder," as loud as he could, when he 
was knocked down and silenced. Sam had hit 
the men terribly hard licks and they were ap- 
parently dead. It was getting late and in an 
hour more they would be on the march, but what 
would they do with the wounded men? They 
would come to during the night and alarm the 
country and have pursuers after them. They 
found some strong cords that the slave hunters 
carried to tie the fugitives when captured. It was 
decided to tie their hands behind them and tie 
their legs together and tie wooden gags in their 
mouths. This would prevent them from getting 
up and making any noise. They would have to 
stay there until some one found them. Early that 
morning one of the guards that was well acquaint- 
ed with the roads in the country went to see 
George Hill and try to get him. to furnish them 
two wagons so that they could get over White 
river as soon as possible. He found Mr. Hill and 
it was understood that two wagons v/ould be at 
the crossing of the road they were on with the 
Fredonia road at 7 o'clock that evening. The two 
guides were on the m.arch with the eight negroes 
and about seven o'clock found Mr. Hill's two v/ag- 
ons ; all were loaded in and made a rapid march to 
the north. Mr. Hill was a little alarmed when he 

118 



SAM LYNN 

found what a battle they had with the slave hunt- 
ers and decided that he would trust his teams to 
the guards with the understanding that they were 
to be returned as soon as the fugitives crossed 
White river, which they aimed to do at the Har- 
riman ferry a little northwest of Otwell, Ind. The 
man who had charge of the ferry at night was a 
friend. The fugitives and three guards got over 
White river in good shape without any further 
incident worthy of mention. Mr. Hill the next 
day after he sent his team went up in the neigh- 
borhood of where the battle was fought. It was 
the middle of the afternon before the tied men 
were found; they had hitched their horses in a 
grove two miles south of the battle field. The find- 
ing of these men in the condition they were in 
raised a great commotion in the Spradly neigh- 
borhood. There were a number of people from 
that section that put in the most of their 
time scouting over the country hunting for 
runaway negroes and were very domineering 
over people who did not believe as they did. Gilp 
Allen was alvv^ays with people from that neigh- 
borhood. It was found that none of the men 
were dead but the fellow that tried to shoot Sam 
had his skull cracked and was still unconscious. 
They said that they did not see but two of the 
negroes, the one that challenged them and the 

119 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

limping one that beat them up so. No one wanted 
to see those men killed but there was many a one 
that was glad of the defeat they met with. I met 
Henry Johnson some time after this at Evansville 
and was introduced to him by Mr. Hanson. In talk- 
ing about Sam Lynn and his exploits Johnson said 
that in a free for all fight that Sam was worth his 
weight in wild cats. Johnson said that the men 
that owned the bloodhounds found them the next 
day; both were dead near each other. The old 
Squire Bodin was satisfied that it was Sam who 
killed the patrol and so badly wounded the other 
two, and had a writ for him ; but the officers were 
a little slack about hunting for Sam. Mr. Ford 
had come home and went to see Mr. Bodin and 
found that his overseer had urged the investiga- 
tion. The overseer lost his job, and Mr. Ford a 
very valuable hand, and Sam gained his freedom. 



120 



CHAPTER XII 



A SLAVE HUNT TO WATCH THE KIRKS MILL 
BRIDGE 

Some time late in the summer of 1852 a man 
rode hurriedly into Princeton, Indiana, covered 
with dust and his horse in a lather of sweat that 
showed evidence of hard riding. Tied to the back 
of his saddle were a number of large whips and 
several cords, and hanging to the horn were sev- 
eral pairs of handcuffs. A brace of heavy revol- 
vers were belted around his waist outside his dusty 
coat. Altogether he was a fierce-looking fellow. 

Dismounting, he tied his horse to the courtyard 
rack and hurrying to the south door of the old 
court house put on the bulletin board a notice of 
three runaway negroes, offering a reward of five 
hundred dollars for their capture. After doing 
this he inquired for the best tavern and had his 
horse taken to the liverystable. He made inquiry 
of any who lived there if there was anyone who 
would be willing to help him catch the runaways. 
Some time after he got to the tavern two gentle- 
men who were always boasting of the many times 
they had engaged in such work, called on him of- 
fering their services to help him catch the run- 

121 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

aways. The slave owner inquired about their ex- 
perience in such business and they informed him 
that they had been in many such hunts. He told 
them they would do and if he got the negroes he 
would divide the reward which was offered, be- 
tween five men ; that all he wanted was their help 
in catching the rascals. He asked them who the 
other three men would be. There were several 
names mentioned to him of those who would be 
good help in such an undertaking. They mutually 
agreed on the three men when he enjoined them 
to secrecy. Only those going on the raid should 
know anything about what they intended to do. 
After this was arranged it was agreed that the 
first two men should come back to the tavern not 
later than four o'clock to let him know if the three 
men selected could be depended on to go. By 
that time he could secure some needed rest and 
they would mature a plan of action for the com- 
ing night. 

The slave owner said that he felt certain the 
runaways v/ould pass som.e where near Princeton 
during the early part of the night and aim to 
cross the Patoka river and get as far on toward 
White river as they could before daylight. He 
thought it best to guard one or two bridges over 
the Patoka and should they fail in capturing them 
he would organize a posse and picket White river 

122 



A SLAVE HUNT 

at every point where it was thought Hkely they 
could cross. PuHing a small map from his pocket 
and looking over it for a short time he pointed out 
a route which he thought they would be most 
likely to follow. He pointed to Wheeling, (Kirks- 
ville) as the place he thought they would try to 
cross the Patoka river and said that he would go 
to that point with the five men selected and watch 
that bridge. 

He authorized the two men, if they could find 
any reliable persons to guard the Columbia bridge 
for them to do so, as it might be possible they 
would go that way. Bidding the two men good 
bye he asked them to be prompt and report at the 
time named. 

That the reader may understand the situa- 
tion I will state that the slave-hunting bullies had 
made themselves so obnoxious to many good peo- 
ple in and around Princeton that this bogus slave 
hunt was inaugurated to teach them a needed les- 
son. The pretended slave owner was none other 
than an anti-slavery spy and he had five confed- 
erates who were well acquainted with the coun- 
try and the people. The ones selected to guard 
the Wheeling bridge were the most offensive ones 
in that business. The anti-slavery confederates 
had eight heavy bombs made at Kratz & Heilman's 
foundry in Evansville which would hold about 

12-^ 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

three pounds of powder, each with a screw at- 
tachment so that a time fuse could be put into 
the powder. 

As soon as it was dark the five men carrying 
the bombs started two hours ahead of the brave 
negro catchers. The first two bombs were placed 
near the side of the road in a deep hollow about 
two and a half miles northeast of Princeton; the 
next two were placed about three-fourths of a 
mile from the Wheeling bridge and the other four 
two on each side of the bridge, about sixty or 
seventy yards away. A man was left at each sta- 
tion to fire the fuse at the proper time and the 
extra man nearly a hundred yards from the bridge 
down the river to command an imaginary battal- 
ion. These bombs were the real thing for a great 
noise. 

At four o'clock the two men were on hand 
and had the names of three men who would go 
out and watch the Columbia bridge; also said 
that the other men of their party would be ready 
at any time set for the start. The slave owner 
said that he did not care to see the three men who 
were to go to the Columbia bridge as he thought 
they had but little chance of success and he au- 
thorized the two men to see that they went, and 
for them and the other three of their party to 
meet him on the north side of the cemetery at 

124 



A SLAVE HUNT 

one hour after night and they would go to the 
Wheeling bridge. 

The party all assembled on time and then 
took the Wheeling road to the northeast for the 
bridge. There had been an agreed signal between 
the pretended slave owner and his confederates 
with bombs so he could locate their places, so when 
the bridge watching party got to the deep hollow 
of Indian creek, a deep loud voice some way to one 
side said — "Who goes there?" The men stopped 
and listened for some time but nothing more was 
heard. The leader turned to his posse and said 
— ''Did you let it be known that we v/ere going 
on this hunt?" They all said that they had not. 
He rode around and called several times but there 
was no response. 

They then rode ahead and after passing sev- 
eral miles came to where the second station v/as 
located when from out of the woods to one side 
of the road in a deep sounding voice came the 
second challenge — **Who goes there?" The party 
stopped and the leader said in a loud voice "Who 
are you that you demand who we are ?" He wait- 
ed for some time but there was no more sound 
heard. The leader after locating the place well 
turned to his men and asked if they thought it 
could be possible that the abolitionists would at- 
tempt to defeat their plans. They all said they 

125 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

did not think they had any idea of their move- 
ments. The leader said it was strange indeed that 
they should have been twice stopped by such an 
unearthly sound. 

They rode on in silence to the bridge, crossed 
over it and went on watch on the north side, keep- 
ing the horses close at hand so they could mount 
if they needed to in a moment, as the slave owner 
told them the slaves would run and that there were 
two desperate characters in the lot. The brave 
slave owner had them watch closely. He would 
walk up and down both banks of the river pre- 
tending to be watching everything. Finally he 
came running up the bank and said — ''Boys get 
on your horses. I am certain there is something 
going on. I heard a noise as of men slipping 
through the brush !" At this time one of his con- 
federates called out — "Halt! dismount, let two 
men hold the horses! Get into line; shoulder 
arms!" At this time one of the bombs near the 
horses went off. The leader called — ''Get over the 
bridge boys, the abolitionists will blow it down." 
At this another bomb exploded near them; this 
put the horses in a fearful panic and they went 
across the bridge at a great gait. 

Soon the bombs on the north side exploded. 
The men were on the go and it was a half mile be- 
fore the leader could stop them. Shaming them 

126 



A SLAVE HUNT 

for such cowardice, they stopped and Hstened and 
hearing nothing marched on to where the last 
voice was heard, as they went to the bridge, and 
were listening; then the two bombs at this point 
were exploded within a few feet of them. After 
this there was no more halt and the man who fired 
the two bombs at Indian creek said he could not 
tell that they went any faster, as they were at top 
speed when they got to him. The leader tried to 
keep up calling to them to stop. They did not heed 
him for they had seen and heard enough for one 
night and ran all the way back to Princeton. 

In 1865 a captain of the 143d Indiana regi- 
ment who for years after the war lived at and near 
Francisco, Indiana, and later moved west, while 
seated on the capital steps at Nashville, Tennesee, 
gave me the data for the above story. He said he 
was never so thoroughly frightened in his whole 
life as when the big bombs commenced to go off; 
it sounded as though the infernal regions had 
broken loose. Who the five men were who had 
charge of the bombs he never could learn but al- 
ways believed that they lived in the Stormont and 
Carithers neighborhood northeast of Princeton. 
As he expressed it, it broke him of "sucking eggs" 
and if any of the other four men ever tried to 
catch a runaway negro afterward he never heard 
of it. 

127 



CHAPTER XIII 



GEORGE STURGES 

Two young fishermen who were in the em- 
ploy of the Anti-Slavery League at Evansville, 
had an arrangement with George Sturges who 
lived near Spottsville, on Green River, to work for 
them of nights vdien he could get away. Early 
one night as George was going to see some negroes 
that he was at work with to help them gain their 
freedom, he came across five negroes who were 
going to the Ohio river and aimed to cross it. 
George told them that they had better follow him 
and he would take them to a place where they 
would be taken over and put in the hands of peo- 
ple who would see that they went to Canada. This 
they readily agreed to. When they reached the 
river opposite the City of Evansville, they could 
not see any light on the water. George hid the 
fugitives on the bank of the river in some brush 
and weeds, then went down the river looking for 
some way to cross it. He came to v/here two free 
negroes with a skiff who had been at a negro fan- 
dango on the south side, and persuaded them to 
set him over the river. He soon was at the fish- 
erman's room (where he had been many times be- 

128 



GEORGE STURGES 

fore) and had two skiffs after the fugitives. When 
they got back to the city they took the two women 
and three men to a negroe's home that they had 
always found willing to do all that he could to help 
his race. This man was Mr. Willard Carpenter's 
hostler and carriage driver. Mr. Carpenter was a 
very strong anti-slavery man and had told his 
hostler that he would aid a run away slave 
if they came to him for help. This hostler 
had told the fishermen what Mr. Carpenter 
had said. They had him tell Mr. Carpenter 
about the five fugitives at his home who want- 
ed to go north, and see if he would let him 
have one of his teams and wagon to take them 
as far as one days journey. Mr. Carpenter said 
that he could have the teams if he would do as he 
dictated. This was agreed to, then Mr. Carpen- 
ter wrote a letter to Mr. Isaac Street telling him 
that he sent the five negroes to him to hide until 
he (Street) could have an opportunity to send 
them farther north. Willard Carpenter and Isaac 
Street had laid out the town of Dongola. Mr. Street 
lived there and had a small store. He and his 
good wife, Aunt Rachel, were Quakers and friends 
to the poor slaves. Mr. Street had helped to hide 
several bunches of runaway negroes. During the 
day Mr. Carpenter had his hostler get the wagon 
in shape with plenty of hay for beds. As soon as 

129 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

it was night the negroes were loaded in and a 
heavy tarpaulin was spread over the wagon. The 
driver had driven Mr. Carpenter several times 
over the road from Evansville to Dongola, and was 
well acquainted with the route. It was an all night 
drive of full thirty miles and it was coming day 
when the negroes got to Mr. Street's and were 
placed in the cellar that was under the store room. 
At the time the negroes were getting out of the 
wagon there was a man that had some fishhooks 
set out at the river bank only a little ways from 
Mr. Street's house who passed and saw several 
people, but it was too dark to give any descrip- 
tion of their color or sex. This fisherman went 
back to the town and related what he had seen. 
About noon that day two local negro hunters that 
lived near Princeton, Indiana, were in Dongola 
with an advertisement of five negroes — three men 
and two women that had run away from Hender- 
son county, Kentucky, offering a reward of sev- 
enty-five dollars for each of the fugitives. It was 
but a little time until the report that the fisher- 
men gave out about seeing so many people getting 
out of the wagon at Street's reached those 
brave slave hunters and they made many boastful 
threats of what they would do to the old Quaker 
for harboring slaves and hiding them from their 
masters. Some one told these brave fellows that 

130 



GEORGE STURGES 

the men that got out of the wagon were all armed 
with rifles; this put a little damper on the negro 
hunters and they said that they expected that it 
would be best for them to get the sheriff before 
they attempted to go into Street's house, but thjey 
would go there and make the demand, and if he 
refused to give the runaways up they would go 
for the sheriff. Word was sent to Thomas Hart 
to come and bring a gun. Mr. Basil Simpson was 
lame and had learned the shoemaker's trade, he 
lived near the Dongola bridge, and was a full- 
fledged abolitionist and entered into the coming 
fun by taking or sending his rifle to Street's house. 
They had four guns there and when the men 
got within about twenty feet of the store door 
where Mr. Street was standing they said that 
by the authority the fugitive slave law gave 
them, they demanded of him to bring forth any 
fugitives from slavery that he was harboring and 
deliver them up to them under the pain of be- 
ing arrested and put in prison. About this time 
the muzzles of four black rifles were thrust out of 
the two windows! At sight of the guns the two 
brave men did some sprinting that has never been 
equaled in this ''neck of woods" before or since. 
They ran to where their horses were hitched and 
were on the road home in a short time. That 
night Thomas Hart and Wesley Simpson piloted 

131 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

the three negro men to Dr. Posey's coal bank. 
The two women were sisters and sisters of two of 
the men. One of the women was sick and un- 
able to go. Aunt Rachel said that she would take 
care of them. The woman became so very sick 
that Dr. Samuel D. McCullough was called in. 
The doctor was from South Carolina and at that 
time, no doubt, was pro-slavery in his sentiments. 
The situation was explained to him and he was re- 
quested to say nothing. The doctor said that a 
true physician never revealed a secret intrusted 
to him. The sick woman got better and was 
able to sit up. One afternoon Aunt Rachel thought 
it would be good for the convalescent to take a 
walk at the back of the house in her garden by 
the sister aiding her. During the time the two 
women were in the garden a woman from over the 
river in Pike county was at Mr. Street's store 
trading and saw them. After she got home she 
was relating to the family what she had seen. At 
that time a young man of their acquaintance was 
there. He had the reputation of being in many 
negro hunting expeditions. He soon excused him- 
self and went away. The woman of the house 
was surprised at his action; she did not think 
about the negro women being slaves. Robert 
Hawthorn at that time had a large saw mill about 
three miles north of Dongola, on the Evansville 

132 



GEORGE STURGES 

and Petersburg road and he had among his hands 
two young men who had been in many bridge 
watching and negro hunting scrapes, with Jack 
Kinman and others. The young man that left so 
hurriedly after learning of the two negro women 
being at Mr. Street's, went directly to Mr. Haw- 
thorn's mill to see the two young men above men- 
tioned. This trio made arrangements to raid Mr. 
Street's home the next night. One of the men 
was to see Jack Kinman and have him bring some 
help as they wanted eight or ten men. They 
aimed to meet on the road on the top of Slickum 
Hill at eight o'clock the next evening. Mitch Quig- 
gins was Mr. Hawthorn's engineer. The young 
men made their plans in his presence as they ex- 
pected him to go with them ; but he excused him- 
self as he was worked down, and asked them to 
get some one else. Mr. Quiggins was in sympathy 
with the anti-slavery people and as soon as he got 
a chance he explained everything to Mr. Haw- 
thorn, where the men were to meet and what they 
aimed to do. At that time Wesley Simpson was 
hauling sawlogs with a team of three yoke of 
cattle for the mill. Mr. Hawthorn had Wesley 
to put his team in the barn, and get out a horse 
and saddle it to ride to his home and tell his fath- 
er, Basil Simpson, to meet him at the point where 
the Winslow and Kirk's mill road is crossed by 

133 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

the Evansville and Petersburg road at 7 o'clock 
that evening and to stay at home the next day as 
he would be needed by his father ; but say noth- 
ing of what he was told. Mr. Simpson was at the 
appointed place and met Mr. Hawthorn who told 
him of the coming raid. It was decided that 
word would be sent to Thomas Hart and my fath- 
er that night; also to Pink Adkins and Hiram 
Knight. My father sent me early the next morn- 
ing to Mr. Street to do some trading in his store. 
I met Mr. Street, Thomas Hart and Mr. Simpson. 
We resolved in our meeting that we would not 
kill or cripple any one unless we had to to save our- 
selves, and that we would black our faces with 
wet powder to make them believe we were Cherry 
Grove free negroes. The same boys that were 
with us in the Jerry SuUivan raid at the Dongola 
bridge, Wm. B. Dill and Thomas Medcalf, were 
still working for us and would go that night. 
There was a man named Obadiah Naley who had 
drifted to Dongola with the workers on the Wa- 
bash and Erie Canal. This man claimed to be a 
Quaker and made his home at Mr. Street's. He 
was a very handy man with tools and owned a fine 
assortment of them so that he could do any kind 
of work in wood. He was quite a musician and 
had a very large assortment of musical instru- 
ments from a big brass drum to a fife and many 

134 



GEORGE STURGES 

of them he had made. In the collection he had 
seven or eight different patterns of dumb bulls. 
These instruments made the most terrible noise 
of any thing that I had ever heard before. Obadiah 
also had a flambeau arrangement that he called a 
kicking machine ; this was a very complete affair. 
After being set in motion it was automatic in its 
actions. There was a strong square frame and 
twenty-four bent bows fastened to the bottom part 
of the frame. They were bent and fastened to the 
top of the frame with a string. On the end of 
each of the bows, there was a ball of some kind 
of twine saturated with an inflamable liquid. The 
only thing to do to set this machine in motion, 
was to set fire to the string that held the top end 
of the first bow, this soon burned in two, but not 
before it set the ball on fire. As soon as the string 
was in two the bow discharged the great ball of 
snapping fire thirty or forty feet in front of where 
it set. The first ball set the string to the second 
bow on fire and it thus continued until all the 24 
were discharged. The inflamable ball seemed to 
come all to pieces and made a burning ball as large 
as a bushel basket. This flambeau machine was 
loaded and set near the corner of the storebuilding 
and firing it was to be Aunt Rachel's job. The 
Wabash & Erie canal run within about 75 yards 
of the store and had about four feet of water in 

135 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

it ; the tow-path was on the north side of the canal 
at this point and was about 40 feet from the little 
store, and the same distance from the kicking 
machine. Obadiah said that the two negro women 
and Mr. Street could help him with the music. 
The rest of the crowd, eight in number, would be 
(with our faces black as coal) in the garden with 
guns, for fear they might be in such number as to 
attempt to capture all of us. As soon as it was 
dark we were in our places. Mr. Simpson was the 
oldest man in the crowd and we chose him to 
take charge of the young men. Thomas Hart 
asked that he be placed near the bridge so that 
he could let us know when they crossed it, and 
how many there were. We did not have long to 
wait until we heard them crossing the bridge. 
Mr. Hart rushed up to where we lay and said that 
they would be there in two minutes and he thought 
there were twelve in the crowd. They come up the 
tow-path of the canal in true military style, two 
and two ; when they got in front of the store they 
halted and all faced the store house. One man 
dismounted and said in a loud voice: "I will see 
if Mr. Street is at home." As soon as he started 
toward the house the most awful noise com- 
menced ! Obadiah had the dumb bulls in full blast ; 
this made the horses skittish. The man on foot 
halted and turned back to his horse which he 

136 



GEORGE STURGES 

mounted. The noise was so terrible that you could 
not have heard a cannon if one had been fired 
there. In a minute or two the kicking machine 
went into action ! The first ball of fire fell among 
the horses and raised a great scuffle. The next 
one hit a horse and it reared straight up and threw 
its rider. The next two came close together and 
the horses stampeded, some into the canal and 
others down the tow-path whence they had come. 
There were four of the men that had control of 
their horses and were still near the store. At 
the sight of these men staying, Mr. Simpson or- 
dered our men into line. At the sight of so many 
guns these fellows left in a hurry. We had our 
horses and were after them. Obadiah as soon as 
he was done with his part of the music got his 
gun and one of Street's horses and was soon up 
with us. When we got to the bridge we saw a lot 
of horsemen gathered in a bunch. Our command- 
er said: "boys go for them," and we went! We 
ran them to Hawthorn's mill. We did not want 
to catch up with them, but wanted to show these 
bullies that they did not have it all their way. 

The two women were in Aunt Rachel's care 
for more than a month. There were three men, 
two women and three children, sent to our barn 
cellar by Mr. Hansen from the station at Evans- 
ville, with the request that they be sent to Dr. 

137 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Posey's coal bank as soon as it was possible to 
get them there without running too much risk. 
We sent word to Aunt Rachel that we would be 
there at a certain time, and could take the two 
women if they were ready. When we got to Mr. 
Simpson's we found the two women and Aunt 
Rachel with them. She told them goodby with 
many good wishes for a successful journey. By 
midnight they were in Dr. Posey's coal bank and 
by that time the next night they were at one of 
the stations in northern Daviess county. 

George was sent to Henderson, Ky., by his 
master with a load of tobacco. On going through 
the suburbs of Henderson, he passed by his moth- 
er's sister's little house. When his aunt saw him 
she came out to the wagon ringing her hands and 
crying. She told him that her children, John and 
Jane, had been sold to a cotton planter in the 
lower Mississippi country and that they just had 
that day to be with her before they were taken 
away. George did some quick thinking. John 
and Jane came out to the wagon. George said to 
the family, "If I help you will you swear that you 
will never give me away ?" They readily gave the 
assurance. John and Jane were full grown peo- 
ple and belonged to a man different from the one 
that owned their mother. They had all their lives, 
since they could remember, worked in a tobacco 

138 



GEORGE STURGES 

stemmery. George asked John, **do you remember 
the big oak tree that stands at the place where 
we caught the big coon that killed your little dog ?" 
John said that he did. "If you and Jane will be 
there at 9 o'clock tonight, I will put you over the 
river and in the hands of friends who will send 
you to Canada. Will you be there?" After a 
hurried conversation with their mother they said 
they would be there. George said that it was not 
best for them to be seen talking together too 
much. He told his aunt if anyone came to inquire 
for John and Jane after they started to tell them 
that they were visiting some friends in another 
part of the town. It was late when George got 
home. That he might have a good excuse to get 
away he left his coat hid in a convenient place. 
He told his master that he had lost his coat, and 
asked him to give a patrol pass -and let him go 
and look for it. This his master agreed to do. It 
was several miles to the appointed place of meet- 
ing and George wanted to get there as early as 
possible so that John and Jane would not be afraid 
when they got there. George did not have long 
to wait. It was not more than 9 o'clock when they 
set out for the Ohio river about 6 miles away. 
When they got there, they found that there were 
no skiffs. George had an agreed signal with the 
fishermen, (who at that time of night and up 

139 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

to 12 o'clock would be looking out for signals). 
They usually run their lines and took off the 
catch just before midnight and rebaited their 
hooks. George set a turpentine ball on fire and 
threw it up into the air. This was answered from 
the middle of the river and in a little while the 
skiff was at the bank and the two refugee's were 
taken on board. George went over with them as 
he wanted to see what he could do for his cousins. 
George was put back over the river and it was 
nearly daylight when he got to his little shanty. 
He did not go to bed, but went to the barn and fed 
his team as he was sure he would have to haul a 
load of tobacco to Henderson that day. The hands 
that were stripping tobacco soon had George's 
wagon loaded. This gave him an early start for 
Henderson. When he got to where his aunt lived, 
she came out and he told her about John and 
Jane being in safe hands. This was good news. 
She said that soon after the children left the 
house, the man that had bought them came for 
them saying that a steam boat would be there in 
one hour and that they would go on it to their 
new home. She told him that they said they 
were going to bid some of their friends goodby, 
that they were expecting to stay all night with 
her. This seemed to enrage the brute, and he 
said, wi?at was the difference whether they stayed 

140 



GEORGE STURGES 

all night with her or not ? She told him that she 
was their mother. "Yes," he said, "the cow is the 
mother of the calf, but that did not stop its be- 
ing led to the butcher's block. The cow nor the 
calf have nothing to do in the case ; they both be- 
long to an owner, that is the same with negroes. 
They have nothing to say or do in the matter. 
They are property and belong to different owners. 
I will probably be detained here a week or more 
just to give my property a chance to say goodby 
to a lover." The owner, Mr. Jerry, waited there un- 
til the boat had passed and said that he would be 
there in the morning at 6 o'clock and he wanted 
her to have the children ready to go to jail as he 
would put them there for safe keeping until he had 
another chance to get away for home. The mother 
spent the night in dread. She was anxious about 
the children and was in fear of what the man 
might do to her. It was just six when she was 
called to the door by a loud knock. She found two 
men standing there one with two pair of hand 
cuffs and the other with a coil of rope in his hands. 
Mr. Jerry said for her to send the children out. 
She told him they had not come back yet. This 
made that slave bully so mad that he struck her 
a blow with the hand cuffs showing a bad wound 
on the side of her head. The other man whom 
she thought was the jailer told Mr. Jerry to stop, 

141 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

that the woman was the property of another man 
and he had no right to hurt her without his con- 
sent. They went away, Mr. Jerry swearing venge- 
ance against her and said that if she did not tell 
where the children were in hiding, "I will buy 
you from your master and put in my time tortur- 
ing you when I get you to my home." George 
asked her why she did not run away too. She 
asked him how she could. He told her that it 
would be easy. "Did John leave any of his clothes 
there?" She said that both of the children had 
bundles of clothing in the house that they aimed 
to take with them south. "Now aunt you select a 
suit that fits you best and black your face and 
hands (she was a very bright mulatto) and put 
up a small bundle of your clothes that you would 
need most." And said that he would be back in 
about two hours and when she saw him coming 
to start down the street the way he was going, 
with her small bundle under her arm and he would 
pick her up and carry her away. This woman 
lived alone with a very vicious dog for protection, 
that she fed well just before she started, locking 
him in the house. Mr. Jerry did not seem to 
think that his negroes had run away, but thought 
they were in hiding with some other negroes who 
did not want them to go ; and he thought that by 
desperate threats to the mother she would reveal 

142 



GEORGE STURGES 

their hiding place. When George had his tobacco 
unloaded he started for home and as he was near 
his aunt's house he saw a black negro man come 
out of her gate and start along the street the way 
he was going; he drove slow until he got by all 
the houses and had come to the country where 
there was no house near. He then overtook his 
aunt. He could hardly believe his eyes for she 
did not look in any way like her, but looked like 
a strong black field hand. She got into the wagon 
and he said to her that he was nearly dead for 
sleep and would have to be up all that night and 
asked her to drive for him and let him lay down 
on the quilts that he had over the tobacco and 
sleep until he got to the little red church then for 
her to awaken him. The roads forked there. It 
was as much as two hours before they came to 
the church. As the woman drove very slow and 
George was sleeping so soundly she thought best 
to put in all the time she could to let him sleep. 
The two consulted together how best to proceed. 
They concluded that it would be best for his aunt 
to go with George until he got near the farm, then 
to hide her in a thicket that was near his master's 
fence and for her to stay there until it was dark 
when he would come with one of his master's gen- 
tle horses that he intended to steal out, and take 
her up behind him and hurry to the Ohio river 

143 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

opposite Evansville. It was after sundown when 
George got his team put away and fed, and night 
before he had his supper. As soon as he thought 
it safe he slipped to the barn and got out and sad- 
dled one of the best horses on the farm and was 
soon at the thicket where his aunt was concealed, 
got her on the horse behind him and went away 
for the river. When he got there he found that 
by the light in the skiff that they were near the 
southern shore. He used the signal and was soon 
answered and a skiff was heard grating on the 
gravel just below where they stood. One of the 
fishermen came up the bank and George told him 
that this negro was his aunt in disguise and the 
mother of John and Jane. The fisherman told the 
mother that her children were still there and she 
should go to them and that the next night they 
would be sent north. George was soon on the 
road for home where he arrived about midnight. 
He got the horse back in the barn without a mis- 
hap and was soon asleep. George was up early 
and had his team fed and groomed and was ready 
for the trip to Henderson with a load of tobacco. 
When he got near his aunt's little house, he saw 
that the front door was down and the little fence 
in front was all broken down. Coming to the build- 
ing he saw his aunt's big dog lying dead and there 
was evidence of a terrible scuffle. There was a 

144 




Dr. ANDREW LEWIS. 



A Member of the Executive Committee of the Anti-Slavery 
League. 



GEORGE STURGES 

coat sleeve and half of the breast of a coat all 
covered with blood also a large piece of a shirt, 
with blood all over it. ¥/hen George got to the 
tobacco house he learned that Mr. Jerry and a man 
he had hired to help him, had gone to his aunt's 
house and found the door locked. They got a 
heavy piece of timber and broke the hinges and 
the door fell down. The big dog first caught 
Jerry by the left breast and tore out a large piece 
of flesh to the bone. The next grab he made was 
for the face and tore nearly all of one cheek and 
one ear off. The dog would have killed his vic- 
tim if some men passing had not helped him. They 
killed the dog with a heavy bludgeon. This bully 
had acted so domineering that there were but 
few who regretted his misfortune. The negroes 
around the tobacco factory were all showing an 
extra amount of ivory. George felt that the dog 
had avenged his aunt for the brutal lick that 
Jerry had given her with the handcuffs. The 
dogbitten man was very bad off and had sent to 
Mississippi for his brother who was a partner in 
the large cotton farm. The brother came and was 
said to be more brutal and domineering than his 
brother was. He went into a rigid examination 
to find some clue as to what had become of the 
two slaves that his brother had bought. George 
had finished hauling tobacco to Henderson sev- 

145 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

eral days, and was in the big barn of his master 
with some twenty other hands, packing tobacco 
in hogsheads and prizing it, when three or four 
men rode up, got off their horses, and came into 
the barn and inquired for George Sturges. He 
was in a hogshead at the time putting tobacco into 
it. They went up to the hogshead and told him 
to get out. They caught his hands and tied them 
behind his back. Two httle white girls were at 
the barn and saw them tie George; they ran 
to the house and told Mrs. Jones, George's mis- 
tress what they had seen. She ran up to the barn 
just as they were getting ready to start way. She 
went to George and with a sharp knife cut the 
cord that held his hands. The brother of the 
wounded man told her that he would make her 
pay a fine for what she had done. She told him 
that if he did not get off the premises, she would 
have her slaves tie him to a post; that if George 
had done anything he should be punished for it; 
but the evidence must be forthcoming before they 
could take a man's liberties from him. She sent 
one of the hands to the house for her father who 
was at that time on a visit to his daughters. He 
was a fine looking middle aged man and was a 
Judge of the Federal Court for the district of 
Eastern Kentucky. He asked Jerry to show his 
authority for arresting the negro. He said he had 

146 



GEORGE STURGES 

no direct evidence more than the people that are 
missing were his relatives and all they intended 
doing was to take him to the Henderson jail and 
try by torture to make him tell what he knew 
about the disappearance of the slaves his brother 
had bought and also of their mother. The Judge 
told them that before they had a right to do any- 
thing they had to have evidence of his guilt. There 
was a great deal of excitement in that part of 
Kentucky. George felt that he had done about 
all that he could do, except to gain his own free- 
dom. He liked his master and mistress. They 
were good to him and he did not want them to 
have the loss of his value. His master had been 
offered $1500 for him many times. There was 
one other slave named Rube Long that was owned 
by George's master that he wanted to help liber- 
ate. These two negroes found out that there was 
to be a slave trader in the neighborhood soon, (no 
class of men were so thoroughly hated by both 
white and black as these slave traders; they had 
done so many mean things that they had incurred 
this hatred from all) . George told his master and 
mistress one night that he wanted them to sell 
him and Rube, and that he could get fifteen hun- 
dred dollars each for them. His master wanted to 
know if he was tired of living on the farm. George 
told him no, that he liked them so much that he 

147 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Y/pu.ld not do them any harm, that he and Rube 
had seen the slave trader and told him that they 
wanted him to purchase them and take them south 
and that it would take three thousand dollars to 
get them, which the slave trader told them he 
would give if there was no mortgage on them. 
The slave trader came to see Mr. Jones and told 
him he would like to purchase the two likely ne- 
groes and that he would give him three thousand 
dollars for the tv/o. Mr. Jones said that he hated 
to sell them but he would let him have them. The 
papers were drawn up and a clean bill of sale was 
drawn up by Mr. Jones and the cash paid for it. 
There v/as to be a boat at the Spottsville Land- 
ing the next evening at 9 o'clock to take them to 
Evansville where they would be shipped on a 
large boat for the far south at 12 o'clock that 
night. The slave trader had made arrangements 
with George and Rube to help him watch the ne- 
groes and help him keep them in a body when they 
were unloaded at Evansville. In all there were 
sixteen negroes. George and Rube went among 
the slaves and told them to do as they directed 
them, that it would be for their interest. When 
the little boat got to Evansville the negroes were 
unloaded on to a wharf boat and all huddled up in 
one corner v/ith George and Rube guarding them. 
It would be two hours before the big steam-boat 

148 



GEORGE STURGES 

would be there, ^he slave trader came to the ne- 
groes huddled in the corner of the wharf boat, 
and told them to stay there and do as George and 
Rube told them to, that he was going up in town 
to get some supper and something to drink and 
that he would bring them some whiskey when he 
came back, which would be before the steamer 
was due. As soon as Rube and George were sat- 
isfied that he was gone they told the negroes to 
follow them that they intended to see that they 
went to Canada and to freedom. George ran 
ahead and found one of the fishermen who gave 
him the names of several negro families that 
had helped them often in hiding negroes. There 
was an old unused coal mine in the southwest 
part of the city that was dry and would hold a 
hundred men ; if they could hide them in the city 
until a late hour of the night, they then could take 
them in squads to the coal mine. Mr. Hansen was 
in the City and the fishermen conferred with him. 
He advised that they be taken to the coal bank 
and kept there until the next night when they 
would be sent north. When the slave trader got 
back to the wharf boat he was pretty full and he 
was not certain v/here he had left the negroes. He 
found P. G. O'Riley the owner of one of the wharf 
boats and soon got into a row with him. O'Riley 
had a policeman to take charge of him and put him 

149 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

in the cooler. The next morning when he was sober 
he told the Mayor, Wm. Baker, that he had 16 ne- 
gros that he left in charge of two trusted negro 
men and that he did not know what had become of 
them. One of the wharf boat hands was there 
for a witness against the slave trader for raising 
a row with P. G. O'Riley. He told the mayor 
that when the big New Orleans boat got to the 
wharf, that two negro men marched a dozen or 
more negroes on to that boat. The mayor advised 
him to take the next boat and follow his slaves. 
Mr. Hansen was a little solicitous about get- 
ting so many negroes in one bunch away to the 
north without some trouble. He knew that it 
would probably be ten days before the slave own- 
er of the sixteen men would get back to Evans- 
ville on the hunt for his slaves and up to that 
time there would be no inquiry about them as it 
was thought they had gone on the steamer that 
the wharf boat clerk said he had seen them go 
on. Mr. Hansen during the next morning met 
with Dr. Andrew Lewis of Princeton, who was in 
the city. They were well acquainted and under- 
stood each other. The E. & T. H. Railroad was 
then building from Princeton to Vincennes, and 
was some distance over White river. Mr. Hansen 
hoped that he could charter a freight car 
that would take him and two guards and sixteen 

150 



GEORGE STURGES 

negroes over White river, then he could take them 
to a secure station east of Vincennes. Hansen was 
not acquainted with Judge Hall the president of 
the railroad, so he approached Dr. Lewis and 
asked him what he thought the prospects would 
be to charter a stock car and have it leave Evans- 
ville after night. The doctor told Hansen to leave 
that to him and he would meet him at an agreed 
place. Dr. Lewis was well acquainted with Mr. 
Hairs anti-slavery principles and had no trouble 
in getting the car. Mr. Hansen was to take his 
saddle horse and two guards, a horse each in the 
car. They made a partition in one end of the 
car so that the fugitives could not be seen by the 
conductor or anyone else and made strong stalls 
in the other end for their three horses. There 
was to be a lot of material for the road sent up 
early that night and the car with the stock was 
to go with that train. This was done and Mr. 
Hansen's car was put on a new switch some miles 
north of Decker Station. At a late hour that night 
the stock and fugitives were unloaded and hur- 
ried to the refuge station. 

This was the last of George Sturges as far 
as the author knows. He was a true man to his 
race and was honorable. His master and mis- 
tress had been good to him and he did not intend 
that they should lose his value and that of Rube's, 

151 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

as both of them had resolved to go north and to 
freedom, so they took their time and when they 
learned that a slave trader was in that section, 
they went to see him and made him believe that 
they wanted to go south. They set a price on 
themselves and got his promise that he would 
see their master the next day and buy them. They 
then went to their master and pleaded with him 
to sell them. The master knew that they did not 
want to go south and thought that it might be 
best for him to get their value while he could, so 
he sold them. Mr. Hansen said that George told 
him that if the slave trader had kept with them 
and given them no chance to give him the slip, 
they intended to kill him and throw him into the 
river. 



152 



CHAPTER XIV 



DR. JOHN W. POSEY AND REV. ELDRIDGE 

HOPKINS RELEASING KIDNAPPED 

NEGROES 

Along in the early part of the fifties two free 
negro men who lived in northern Kentucky, not 
far from Rockport, Indiana, had been working on 
the Wabash and Erie canal between Washington 
and Terre Haute, for some time, and had de- 
termined to go to their homes and had got as 
far as Washington on their way there when they 
fell in with a man who seemed very friendly to 
them asking them where they were going. When 
they told him he told them that he and a friend 
of his were going in the same direction nearly to 
the Ohio river in a wagon and that if they want- 
ed to they could go with them and it would not 
cost them anything for the ride ; that they would 
have provisions with them for the trip and they 
could assist in preparing it but that they would 
not be ready to start before three or four in the 
afternoon. 

The offer was a very favorable one to the 
two negroes and they gladly accepted it and said 
they would be at an agreed point at the south 

153 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

side of Washington, where the two men with the 
wagon found them. 

They took the Petersburg road and it was 
late in the evening when they crossed the White 
river at the ferry. Mr. John Stucky, who crossed 
at the same time, knew one of the white men and 
at once suspected what he was up to but could not 
draw him into a conversation and could not get a 
chance to talk to the colored men as he had hold 
of his horse. He heard them tell the ferryman 
that they would stay all night in a wagon yard in 
Petersburg. After they were over, the wagon 
traveled pretty fast. Mr. Stucky did not keep up 
with it and reached Petersburg some time after it 
had put up at the wagon yard. Stucky hunted up 
Dr. John W. Posey, who was the father of Hon. 
Frank B. Posey, and told him about the white 
men and negroes that were stopping at the wagon 
yard. The doctor at once understood the situa- 
tion and sent a spy to the wagon yard to see what 
he could find out. The spy soon reported that he 
found them eating supper and that a noted hotel 
keeper was some distance away engaged in con- 
versation with one of the men. 

He talked with the negroes, who said that 
their homes were in Kentucky and that these 
men were letting them ride in the wagon most of 
the way. They had no evidence but the doctor re- 

154 



RELEASING KIDNAPPED NEGROES 

solved to have a watch kept and have the wagon 
followed up to see what developments might come. 
About two hours before day the guard who had 
been on watch came hurriedly to the doctor's home 
and told him they were ready to start and had 
their team hitched to a three seated express 
wagon and that the hotel man was with them and 
two other fellows whom he did not know. The 
doctor had three horses saddled and sent for a 
neighbor to ride one of them and one of his hired 
hands rode another and the doctor the third one. 
All three were armed. They sent the guard back 
to watch and report but the express and men had 
gone. Mr. Posey and the other men hurried on 
after them on the Winslow road but did not over- 
take them as they had passed through Winslow 
a little after sunrise and thirty minutes ahead of 
the pursuing party. They followed on after them 
meeting a man about two miles south of Winslow 
who said he had met the express about one mile 
south of where they were and that they had two 
runaway negroes tied together. As there were 
only three of them and four of the kidnappers 
and it was supposed that men on such a business 
would go well armed, they did not feel as if they 
had an equal chance, but they knew that justice 
was on their side so they resolved to follow on 
and when they stopped they would find some one 

155 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

legally qualified to try the case and liberate the 
poor negroes. 

About this time they met Rev. Eldridge Hop- 
kins v/ho told them that he passed the express 
but a short mile south of where they were and 
they inquired of him if he could tell them 
where there was a spring as they wanted to eat 
an early dinner and feed their horses as they were 
getting fatigued. Hopkins thought nothing of it 
as men with runaway negroes were a common oc- 
curence in those days. Dr. Posey told Rev. Hop- 
kins, with whom he was well acquainted, the situ- 
ation and Hopkins, who was in favor of justice 
and was good grit all the way through, offered 
to pilot them around the men if they stopped to 
feed so that they would be in front of them and 
could go to a Justice of the Peace on the road a 
few miles ahead and have papers prepared to stop 
them and release the negroes. 

Coming to the road at the point Hopkins in- 
tended, they found that the express had not 
passed, but they learned that the squire they 
wanted was away from home and before they 
could find a legal light who could give them the 
right to stop the kidnappers they got into War- 
rick county, where a writ was secured. When the 
express came up a constable halted them and 
marched them into a Justice's court. At first the 

156 



RELEASING KIDNAPPED NEGROES 

kidnappers were disposed to threaten but by this 
time a number of men had gathered around 
in front of them. These fellows were completely- 
nonplussed by the action of Dr. Posey. The two 
negroes were brought into court and told their 
story. Dr. Posey retold what the colored men told 
his man the night before while one of the white 
m.en was eating supper with them. The crowd 
was very much in sympathy with the two unfor- 
tunates. 

The man who claimed to own them showed a 
hand bill giving a perfect description of the two 
men and offering a rev/ard of two hundred dollars 
for their recapture dated at a point in Tennesee 
some v/eeks before. This hand bill was no doubt 
printed at Washington the day before, while these 
negroes were v/aiting for their new found friends. 
Things now began to look pretty bad for the poor 
negroes. Hopkins was a ready talker and he vol- 
unteered to defend them and made a telling speech 
in which he had the sympathy of all not interest- 
ed. The old Justice was against the negroes and 
he decided that they were nearly all slaves and 
those who claimed their homes in a slave state 
were all slaves and whereas their owner had pro- 
duced a notice of them that had a perfect de- 
scription and dated several weeks before he would 

157 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

let him (the supposed owner) go with his proper- 
ty. 

This infuriated Hopkins and he told Dr. 
Posey that he would see that the men did not get 
over the Ohio river with the negroes. While Mr. 
Hopkins and Dr. Posey were having a consulta- 
tion, Mr. Hopkins discovered that he had his foot 
on the hub of a wheel of the express the kidnap- 
pers had come in and saw that the wheels were 
held on with linch pins and that he could easily 
get one of them out, which he did and put it in 
his pocket. It was decided that it was best for 
the doctor and his two men to return home. Hop- 
kins said that in that crowd he could find all the 
men he wanted to go with him on the raid so hav- 
ing chosen them they secured arms and were 
soon on the go. 

Starting off in an easterly direction they 
soon found a road which brought them to the 
Boonville road and found that the express had not 
passed. They took powder and made themselves 
as black as Nubians ; no one would have recognized 
them. Mr. Hopkins thought that the express 
might get some distance before the wheel would 
come off. 

They waited for a time but finally started up 
the road and saw the express with one wheel off 
about one mile south of where the old squire lived. 

158 



RELEASING KIDNAPPED NEGROES 

When they got close to the express they rushed 
up hurriedly and demanded to know what they 
had the negroes tied for. The negroes told them 
that they were kidnapped. The rescuing party 
leveled their guns at the three white men and 
made them hold up their hands. One of them had 
gone back to look for the linchpin. The negroes 
were untied and the white men searched for 
guns. They found three old pepper box revolvers 
of a pattern of that date and several knives. They 
also found a fine rifle in the bottom of the express. 
The negroes were made to tie the three men and 
they all sat down out of sight until the fourth 
man came back when he was also tied. They then 
organized a stump court martial to try the kidnap- 
pers. 

The negroes first told their story as has been 
above related. The four men were told that they, 
one at a time could tell their side of the case. The 
would-be owner produced the hand bills that Dr. 
Posey told Mr. Hopkins were made in Washing- 
ton. Mr. Hopkins who was the leading spokesman 
told them that this was the case and said that that 
was the worst feature in it. 

The court after hearing all the evidence de- 
cided that all four of them should die, for such 
villainy was a menace to good order and the peace 
of society but told them that any one of them 

159 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

v/ho would tell the whole truth should live. At this 
one of the men commenced to weaken when the 
leader told him to remember the oath he took 
when he was hired and the penalty if he violated 
that obligation. At this Hopkins took the fellow 
who seemed ready to tell something away from 
the rest and where they could not hear and told 
him that if he would tell the Vv^hole truth that his 
life would be spared. On this assurance he told 
all he knew. He said that the pretended owner 
lived at Washington, Indiana, and that it was in- 
tended to cariT the negroes to Mississippi coun- 
try and sell them. He also said that they had 
agreed to pay him. and another mian whom they 
hired at Petersburg, one hundred dollars each to 
go with them, and watch the two negroes until 
they were sold; and that the team belonged to the 
leader who pretended to own the negroes. 

Mr. Hopkins took the man back to tlie party 
and put the negroes guard over them. He then 
re-assembled the court martial and they held an- 
other consultation after which he told the white 
prisoners that they deserved to die for such vil- 
lainy but they did not want their blood on their 
hands and had decided not to kill them, but they 
intended to give them an object lesson they would 
remember all the rest of their lives. 

Hopkins took the leader and the two negroes 

160 




REV. ELDRIDGE HOPKINS. 



RELEASING KIDNAPPED NEGROES 

out in the woods some distance west of the road, 
cut two good-sized hickory gads and told the ne- 
groes to give him twenty-five hard lashes each 
which they did with a will. They untied the fel- 
low, who was evidently well whipped and told him 
to go in a north-west direction and not to stop or 
look back. Then he took the other man from 
Washington and two negroes to the east side 
of the road, cut tv/o gads, gave him fifty 
lashes, untied him and told him to go to the north- 
east and not to stop or look back under penalty 
of being shot. The two men who had been hired 
they gave ten lashes each and then turned them 
loose toward Evansville. Mr. Hopkins and his 
party held a final conference and then had the 
negroes put the wheel on having given them the 
linchpin. They decided to turn the team over to 
the two negroes with the pepper box revolvers and 
the rifle to defend themselves, deciding that they 
had undergone enough torture to have all the 
spoils. By this time it was an hour after dark. 
The two darkies drove away and these rude but 
just judges went to their homes. 

Some ten days after the events above re- 
corded Mr. Hopkins went to Petersburg and visit- 
ed Dr. Posey. They sent a man to Washington 
to find out what he could about the two villains 
who attempted the kidnapping. He learned that 

161 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

they got back the day after they were so soundly 
thrashed and reported they had fallen in with a 
band of horse thieves who had beaten them fear- 
fully and taken from them their team and every- 
thing else they had. 

Some time after this Mr. Hopkins was work- 
ing for the company that built the first steam 
mill in Oakland City getting out rock for the foun- 
dation. In tamping a charge of powder it went 
off prematurely and came very near putting his 
eyes out. He remained for three weeks at my 
father's home perfectly blind, but otherwise in 
the best of health. During that time he related 
this story to my father giving all the details ex- 
cept the names of any but Dr. Posey. My father 
and Dr. Posey were friends and he asked the 
doctor about it. The doctor said that it was the 
best planned expedition of the kind that he had 
ever heard of and to the Rev. Eldridge Hopkins 
three-fourths of the credit was due for its success- 
ful ending. 



162 



CHAPTER XV 



JOHN BUND AY WAS AN EMPLOYEE OF THE 
ANTI-SLAVERY LEAGUE 

After Jeff Lewis went to Canada, Job Turn- 
er was at a loss to know how he could be of any 
service to the Anti-Slavery League. Jeff had told 
Turner of a wide awake negro that lived near Cal- 
houn, Ky., named John Bunday, who he felt sure 
would be true and competent to do the work. 
Turner as well as others had found out that slaves 
could do much better work and were safer than for 
white men to do it. Every slave wanted his free- 
dom and when any one approached him on that 
subject, he knew he was a friend and was working 
for his good and if he was so situated by family or 
otherwise that he could not go, he would keep 
the secret safe. Turner went on with his ped- 
ling and was showing his goods to some negro 
woman near Calhoun, Ky., one day he heard one 
negro woman say to another that John Bunday 
would likely be sold to a man in Mississippi, as 
his master owed a man there one thousand dol- 
lars. Turner asked the woman who John Bunday 
was and where he was. She pointed out a man 
daubing a shanty near by and said that he was 

163 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

John Sunday and that he was the smartest man 
OR the farm. Turner went to the place where the 
man was working and pretended to show him 
some goods and said to him, ''John I would like to 
talk with you if we can get a chance to get togeth- 
er secretly." John asked him where he was to stay 
that night. Turner told him at a hotel in Calhoun, 
John told him at 9 o'clock he would pass the hotel 
for his home, and if Turner was on the sidewalk 
he would talk to him if there was no patrols 
around. At 9 o'clock John come walking slowly 
along the sidewalk and when he got up to where 
Turner was he stopped. Turned said to him : ''Jeff 
Lewis said that you was a good fellow and would 
do to trust and I would like to see you for an hour 
or so where there is no danger of any one know- 
ing it." John replied: "The house you saw me 
daubing is less than a quarter of a mile from here. 
I will be there in twenty minutes. I feel that it 
will be safe for you to come and see he there. If 
I find that it is not safe, I will be sitting in the 
door and the house lit up." Turner went to the 
house along a little path as directed by John and 
found the house dark and safe. Turner was a 
little shy. John told him to feel free and safe 
that he knew of Jeff's work, and he would do the 
same kind of work and was ready to commence 
at once. The only thing he asked as recompense 

164 



JOHN SUNDAY'S WORK 

was that when he had done all that it was safe for 
him to do that he might have a chance to get away 
and take his sister with him. This was agreed to 
and John said that he would do his first work be- 
tween Calhoun and Owensboro. Turner told John 
that he would be on his return trip in ten days 
and would come to his house that night and if he 
had any travelers ready they would make arrange- 
ments for their northern m.arch. John had been 
hired out by his master in a section about half 
way between Owensboro and Calhoun, and was 
well acquainted with a negro preacher in that 
section that had great influence with the colored 
people. John dodged the patrols one night and 
went to see the preacher and found him willing 
and anxious to help in the work. He told John 
that the whole neighborhood would go. They talk- 
ed the matter over and agreed on ten men that 
would try to get through. The preacher was to 
see them and have them ready when he gave them 
the word. John was to see the preacher the 
night after Turner should see him. Turner came 
to John's house at the time he said he would and 
found out the wholesale drive that John and the 
preacher Vv^ere likely to have ready to go to Cana- 
da. It was agreed that there must be great cau- 
tion used as such a loss as ten laborers out of one 
neighborhood would create a stir, and extra 

165 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

efforts would be made to capture the fugitives. 
They agreed on a meeting place about six miles 
from Owensboro where the guards and guides 
would be on the next Tuesday night. The 
preacher had John to exact a promise from Turn- 
er that before winter set in, he, his wife and 
a fifteen year old daughter should have a chance 
to v/in their freedom by the underground route. 
Tuesday night came aruond and five guards and 
guides and ten negroes were on hand. The preach- 
er held a short prayer meeting, then shook hands 
with all of them bidding them all to look to God 
for the success of their undertaking. John and 
the preacher returned to their respective homes, 
the negroes and guards went to a place east of 
Owensboro where two anti-slavery guards had a 
fishing shack. They found two skiffs and although 
they had to make two trips with the skiffs they 
weie soon on the north bank of the Ohio river. 
They immediately started to m_arch to the im- 
mense thicket about 10 miles north of the river 
that has been a resting place for so many run- 
avv^ay negroes. They went into the thicket quite 
a way ; it was a wild tangled m.ass of grape vines 
hazlenut bushes and briers. The large timber 
had all been blown down in a hurricane. It was 
some time before day when they got into the 
thicket though they could have gone several miles 

166 



JOHN SUNDAY'S WORK 

further if there had been a suitable place to hide. 
One of the guards that was acquainted with the 
route went to see Mr. Caswell to make arrange- 
ments for the feeding of the fifteen people early 
that evening, so that they could get to our barn 
cellar before day the next morning. As soon as 
the shades of night came on they were on the go. 
The night was very dark which was fortunate for 
them, for with many people on a road on a bright 
night they would be seen by some one. When they 
got near Mr. Caswell's farm, they met him with 
two large baskets of food. It was thought best 
not to go near the house. Mr. Hill was there and 
enjoined the most perfect quiet on all, as a false 
move might endanger their prospective liberties. 
After supper was over they were on the march 
along a small road that Mr. Hill was acquainted 
with. Everything went well and it was an hour 
before day when the fugitives got into our big 
barn cellar. Mr. Hill made himself known and 
my father told him that great caution was nec- 
essary, that the loss of so many negroes from one 
neighborhood would raise a great commotion and 
many men would be sent in all directions to hunt 
for them. Mr. John Hanson was staying at our 
house that night and was surprised when he found 
out that ten negro men were in our cellar. The 
five guards were in our barn-loft where our wheat 

167 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

and hay was stored, resting. One of them was 
all the time on guard looking out to see what went 
on around our farm. Breakfast for the fugitives 
was sent to the barn. Mr. Hill ate in our house. 
My father, Mr. Hansen and Mr. Hill held a con- 
sultation to find what was best to do. One false 
step would ruin all our calculations and endanger 
our liberties. 

For two days before that we had been tramp- 
ing out wheat with horses on the barn floor over 
the cellar and had piled the wheat in the chaff in 
the center of the floor ready for the fanning mill. 
The last floor full that we had tramped out with 
horses had not been moved from the floor and 
made a perfect screen for the cellar door. Every- 
thing went on as usual until just before noon six 
men rode up to our house and called for my father 
who came out to the men and found that he was 
acquainted with one of them. (I novr think it wa.^ 
Mr. Williams. In the winter of 1861 just before 
the battle of Ft. Donaldson, I was with my regi- 
ment at Calhoun, Ky. and during that time my 
father visited me and we went to see this Mr. 
Williams, who then was selling goods. I bought 
a pair of boots from him). My father and Mr. 
Williams had been friends during the flat-boating 
period and both had run many boats to the lower 
Mississippi country loaded with provisions. He 

168 



JOHN SUNDAY'S WORK 

greeted my father very cordially and told him 
that he was with quite a number of men looking 
to see if they could find any clue to what had be- 
conie of ten likely negro men that had disap- 
peared from the country between Calhoun and 
Owensboro last Tuesday night. My father invit- 
ed Mr. Williams to get off his horse and come into 
the house. He declined, raying there were too 
many of them for a social visit; that they had 
plenty of provisions for themselves in their saddle- 
bags, but they would like to get a good feed for 
their tired horses. At that time what is now the 
campus on which the Oakland City College build- 
ings stand was a feed lot that we used to fatten 
our cattle in every fall and there were boxes on 
posts for thirty or forty head to eat out of. In a 
short time several more men rode up, Mr. Williams 
explained to my father that when they all got in 
there would be twenty -five horses to feed. I took 
the two largest of the colored boys that were stay- 
ing with us and went to the crib and filled up three 
sacks of corn, enough to give the horses a full 
feed. My father walked down to the feed lot with 
his old flat-boat friend. As we were delivering 
the corn, one rough looking fellow stopped the 
two colored boys and commenced to ask them 
many questions. My father and Mr. Williams 
approached when father explained how he came to 

169 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

have the boys. Mr. WilHams went to the bully 
and told him what father had told him. This did 
rot seem to pacify him and he said he believed 
that they were slaves being wrongfully detained 
from their owners. Mr. Williams rebuked the 
bully, telling him that he was trying to insult his 
friend and told him that if he was to make any 
attempt to do anything with the boys, he would 
never get out of that lane alive, pointing to the 
lane that ran by our house. Others of the slave 
hunters went to the bully, who no doubt was full 
of whiskey, and tried to quiet him. As soon as 
their horses were done eating they were ready to 
go. Mr. Williams told my father that they had 
at least one hundred men hunting for the negroes 
or for some clue as to how or where they went. 
He further said that during the last three 
months a large number of slaves had left their 
masters, and not the least clue as to where or 
how they went away had been found. It seems 
as if they had blown away. He said that he did 
not own any slaves at that time, but was with 
his neighbors and customers trying to help them. 
Mr. Williams asked my father if he would let 
them have some one to guide them; they wanted 
to get on the road that runs from Boonville to 
Petersburg. Father went into Mr. Hansen's room 
and he said that he would go as far as Winslow 

170 



JOHN BUNDAY'S WORK 

with them, as he wanted to go into that neigh- 
borhood. He had his horse brought and was ready 
to go. He was introduced to Mr. WiUiams as a 
real estate agent, for a distant company. When 
they were out of sight there was a feehng of 
rehef to all. Mr. Hill had the military part of 
our crowd in good shape; fortunately it was not 
needed. Everything was quiet until late in the 
evening one of Mr. Hansen's spies rode up to our 
house and inquired for him. We told him that 
he had gone away at noon, but he would be back 
at six o'clock that evening. It was then 5:30. 
We told him that he had better get off his horse 
and wait until Mr. Hansen came. He saw one of 
the guards that he knew, and then was soon at 
ease. None of our people had ever seen him be- 
fore. Mr. Hansen was soon seen coming. The 
information that the spy brought was that late 
in the night a wagon would be here from the Cal- 
vert neighborhood with three negro men, two ne- 
gro women and three children. They had crossed 
the river at Evansville, and were carried to a 
thicket in one of the Calvert corn fields. They 
were afraid to try to go north to the next station 
on that route, as it was reported that there were 
many men in Princeton hunting runaway negroes, 
and it was thought best to bring them into this 
neighborhood and have Mr. Hansen make arrange- 

171 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

ments for their trip north. One of the guards 
was to notify Mr. Hansen when the wagon with 
the negroes arrived, which he did sometime after 
midnight. The wagon was unloaded and at once 
started back It was driven by one of the anti- 
slavery guards. The negroes were put in the cel- 
lar where proper arrangements had been made 
for them early in the evening. The next morning 
Mr. Hill, Mr. Hansen and my father consulted to- 
gether what was best to do. It was decided that 
there was so much excitement in all sections near 
there that it was thought best to lay still until it 
had calmed down a little. It was a big proposition 
to cook for and feed so many people. But pro- 
visions were plenty and cheap and one of the ne- 
gro women was taken from the barn to our kitchen 
to help the women there. It had been determined 
that the ngroes should go north in two or three 
days and that they would cross the Patoka river 
some miles west of the Dongola bridge, crossing 
on a fiat bottomed boat that belonged to Thomas 
Hart. It was thought that the negro hunters 
would be going home on Sunday and that night 
the negroes would start, the two women and the 
children would stay in the cellar until they could 
be got away later when a better opportunity was 
found to send them without such a long march on 
foot. It was feared that the children could not 

172 



JOHN BUNDAY'S WORK 

stand such hardships. Mr. Hansen established 
all the stations at points he thought most suit- 
able. The station that he was aiming to take the 
negroes to was where he had to import a man 
and wife to take a lease on a small piece of land 
at or very near where the town of Dugger is now 
located. Sunday night the thirteen negro men 
and five guards and Mr. Hansen started north un- 
der the guidance of Thomas Hart, who was to go 
with them until they crossed White river, which 
they did on a barge that had been left to be filled 
v/ith corn; it was borrowed by Dr. Posey from a 
friend. They crossed the river a little east of 
Beunavista. After they were over White river, 
Mr. Hansen sent the five guards to their station, 
and aimed to find a place in eastern Knox county 
that he knew of, to stay the next day. He in- 
tended to go with the men for three or four days 
until he could get them out of danger of being re- 
captured. It was four days before Mr. Hansen 
returned. He said he had placed the thirteen 
travelers in the hands of friends who would see 
them safe on the anti-slavery boat on Lake Michi- 
gan. He had come by the way of Petersburg to 
see Dr. Posey and learned that he had two men 
and their wives and two children in his coal bank 
They had been carried over the Ohio river near 
the mouth of the Little Pigeon where the anti- 

173 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

slavery people had a station and kept skiffs con- 
venient. Mr. Hansen had made arrangements with 
Dr. Posey to hold his people in the coal bank until 
the people in our cellar could get to him which he 
thought would be that night. When night came 
on we had the wagon with the fish boat on it. 
With two of our hands that had been with me on 
many such trips and with our guns we were soon 
on the road for Dr. Posey's coal bank. When we got 
near Petersburg we met Mr. John Stuckey who 
was on the lookout for us. We soon had the ne- 
groes in safe quarters and were on the road for 
home. 

John Bunday had seen Turner and it was 
thought best to do his next work nearer the Ohio 
river, as the slaves were being watched so closely 
it was difficult to get away early in the evening, 
and it was so far to the river that it was close 
work to get over it before daylight. John was 
passing near the shanty of a negro woman who 
often helped the white folks of his master. She 
called to him and said : "John, if you will give me 
your promise that you will not tell anyone I will 
tell you something that you ought to know." The 
promise was readily given when she said: "Yes- 
terday I was helping your mistress clean house 
when a strange man rode up and called for your 
master. They went into the room adjoining the 

174 



JOHN BUNDAY'S WORK 

one we were in. The sliding doors between the 
rooms had been taken down to clean. The two men 
were in there for a good while and I heard your 
master say, 'If you will give me John's work for 
sixty days I will do it/ saying that he had a cellar 
that he wanted walled with stone. (John was a 
stone mason). The man said to your master that 
he was afraid to do it as he might run away as 
there had been so many runaways from northwest 
Kentucky recently. Your master said that John 
was as staid as a work-horse and never had such a 
thing in his head as running away. The man 
finally agreed that you might stay with your 
master thirty days. A long paper was drawn up 
and signed by your master and given to the man 
when he in turn gave your master a small paper. 
I heard the strange man say that it was a little 
over due, but he would not claim any interest. 
After they were gone your mistress said that she 
hated to see John go away as he was such an 
agreeable good fellow." 

John had heard the rumor that his master 
owed a man in Mississippi one thousand dollars 
and he felt sure that he had been sold to that man 
or his agent to pay that debt. His master put 
him to hauling stone from a quarry, a few miles 
away, to wall the cellar. He was very anxious to 
see Turner, who would not be due there on his re- 

175 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

turn trip until the following Tuesday night; this 
was Friday. He went on hauHng rock. At the 
quarry John saw a boy who was hauling rock to 
the farm, adjoining the one the negro preacher 
(before mentioned) lived on, and sent word for 
him to come to a colored meeting house near Cal- 
houn where a prayer meeting was to be held. John 
was there and the negro preacher came. After 
the meeting John had a chance to talk to him and 
told him of the great calamnity that was about to 
befall him; and further told him that he was 
ready now to redeem his promise to help liberate 
him and family as he and Turner agreed to do| 
that he was determined before the thirty days 
v/ere up to take his sister and try to gain their lib- 
erty. The preacher was willing to make the effort 
to go to Canada, and said that he would manage in 
some way to be at John's shanty the next Tuesday 
night to meet with him and Turner. John had seen 
his sister that Sunday evening ; she was owned by 
a man that lived several miles nearer the Ohio riv- 
er than he. He explained to his sister the trouble 
he was in and he told h«er that late Tuesday night 
after he had the meeting with Turner he would 
be there to see her and tell her where and when 
they would go ; and would come to her shanty door 
and for her to keep awake till he came. This 
sister had a lot of good clothes; she wanted him 

176 




JOBE TURNER 



Who worked south of the Ohio river for the Anti-Slavery 
League. 



JOHN SUNDAY'S WORK 

to tell her what to do with them ; he said for her 
to wear as many of her best dresses as she could 
get on and leave the rest. Turner arrived on 
Tuesday evening and was at John's shanty. The 
preacher was there, also. It was decided that they 
should m.eet Thursday evening at a cross-roads 
where there was a small log negro church, about 
six miles south of the Ohio river and a little south- 
east of Owensboro, Ky. Turner said that he 
would have guides there to pilot them to a place 
where they could cross the river and to take charge 
of them. The negro preacher wanted permission 
to take several of his congregation with him and 
especially one young man who was a prospective 
son-in-law. Permission was given to him to let 
one man and his wife into the secret besides the 
young man and to have them with him at the 
meeting place. John's master had always been 
severe with him, but his mistress was his friend 
and he would do anything he could for her. John 
sought a chance to talk with her and asked her if 
his master had sold him to a man in Mississippi. 
She said to him that it must not be known that she 
had told him, but his master had got in debt to a 
man in that state for one thousand dollars and 
he was pressed to sell him or the farm to pay it; 
that in the trade it was agreed that his master 
could have him to work for thirty days or until 

177 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

the cellar was completed. John told her that he 
would kill himself before he would go to Missis- 
sippi. She tried to persuade him not to think of 
doing such a thing, that he was young and had the 
promise of a long life before him. John was ap- 
parently very gloomy and started to leave ; he told 
her that he was very thankful for the many acts 
of kindness she had done him, but that he could 
not go to Mississippe. His mistress was in real 
trouble and said, ''John you must not think of 
destroying your life. If I will tell you what is best 
for you to do, will you swear before God that you 
will never reveal it to a human?'' John said he 
would. She told him that the man who paid the 
thousand for him was wealthy and would not miss 
the loss, why not do as many have done in this 
part of Kentucky recently, run away. '1 will give 
you a pass that the patrol will let you pass on any- 
where, and give you some money, say twenty- 
five dollars." John told her he would try it. She 
gave him the pass and the money and told him 
she wished him God-speed in his undertaking. 

Thursday night five guards were in hiding 
near the little church some time before any others 
made their appearance. The negro preacher, two 
men and three women came and were put in a 
concealed place. Soon after this John Bunday and 
his sister came, making four negro men and four 

178 



JOHN BUNDAY'S WORK 

negro women and five guards. The guards were 
armed with short breech-loading Sharp's rifles 
that could be carried in such a manner that they 
were concealed by their coats. They were soon on 
the march along a by-way known to the guides. 
Soon after midnight they were at the river, which 
they crossed in skiffs and then went on to the 
great thicket so many times described and went 
into it for quite a distance until they found a good 
place to sleep. As soon as night came they re- 
sumed the march for Mr. Caswell's where they 
found a steaming supper that they made good use 
of. Mr. George Hill was there and as soon as they 
had finished eating he took charge. The two 
guards that belonged to the Owensboro station 
went back, the other three guards and the eight 
negroes were soon on the march and just a lit- 
tle while before day they came to our large corn 
field that came up to our barn and were soon in 
the barn cellar where they found good soft beds 
of straw. 

Mr. Hansen had learned of John Bunday from 
Job Turner, and had expressed a wish to see him 
when he was making the attempt to get to Canada. 
Mr. Hansen's time to be at my father's house was 
over due and we hoped he would come during the 
day. It was late in the afternoon and we were 
planning how best to get the fugitives to the next 

179 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

station. There were many men riding all over 
this part of the country hunting the runaway 
slaves for the large rewards offered for them. 
There was hardly a bridge of any size that was 
not watched by two or three men almost every 
night except Saturday and Sunday ; we found out 
they usuall}^ went to their homes and not many 
of them returned before Monday. While we were 
eating supper Mr. Hansen rode up, he had come 
from the eastern part of his work and had been 
riding all day. When told that John Bunday was 
with the fugitives he went to the cellar to see 
him. Turner had told Hansen that Bunday said 
that as soon as he landed his sister safe in Canada 
he would come back and hide in some of the bor- 
der towns, most likely Evansville, as he knew 
the country south of that city, and from there 
could carry on the work as he had been. Hansen 
made arrangements with him to write as soon as 
he was ready to come, and he would send him 
money for transportation via Chicago to Evans- 
ville. Mr. Basil Simpson went to Petersburg that 
day and saw Dr. Posey and informed him that the 
negroes were coming ; and after he returned home 
he would meet us one mile south of the Dongola 
bridge. By this time it was dark and we had 
two wagons on the road. We met Mr. Simpson 
and he told us that Mr. John Stucky would meet us 

180 



JOHN BUNDAY'S WORK 

at the place where we turned off the Petersburg 
road for the river; that there was so much negro 
hunting it was best to take no chances. He also 
said that the Dongola bridge was not watched. 
Nothing unusual happened on the road, and about 
11 o'clock we were at the river where we found 
that Dr. Posey had perfected all arrangements for 
crossing. There were conveyances on the north 
bank and the negroes were soon on the way to the 
next station. 

Mr. Hansen went with us to the river, as he 
wanted to talk with Bunday and the negro preach- 
er. As Turner had told him, these two men were 
the most valuable help since Jeff Lewis went away 
and he thought it would be hard work to replace 
them. In talking it over John told of a man that 
he knew who lived near Diamond Island Station 
that he thought would soon be a good man to 
help the traveling men on the route. This travel- 
ing man, named Lem Fisher, was an old-fashioned 
clock tinker. He had an additional trade, that of 
tinner, and carried his heating bucket and char- 
coal and also soldering irons with him. This man 
went over a large scope of country and worked on 
clocks, watches and tinware in all sorts of homes. 



181 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THOMAS JEFFERYS 

In 1853 there was a slave-trader from the 
lower cotton country v/ho carne to the section of 
country northeast of Lexington to purchase as 
many as thirty slaves. He v/ent to that part of 
Kentucky where the people enjoyed good health 
and long life because he wanted good strong 
healthy men that v/ould make good field hands. He 
alco v/anted to purchase as many as twenty-five 
or thirty double teams of mules. This trader had 
a man with him to help take care of the mules and 
watch over the negroes on their way home. The 
trader was paying fancy prices and secured quite 
a nurnber of slaves in that section of Kentucky. 
He had bought two fine, likely, very light mulat- 
toes from, a woman w^hose husband was tem- 
porarily away from home. It v/as said by the peo- 
ple of the neighborhood that these two fine look- 
ing- mulattoes were the children of the absent 
husband, hence the wife desired to turn them into 
cash and rid herself of their presence. This wom- 
an had sold the mother of the two men som_e- 
tim.e before this when her husband was away 
from home; and when he came home there was 

182 



THOMAS JEFFERYS FREES NEGROES 

a terrible scene and they come near separating, 
f hey were both wealthy in their own right. The 
wife was much better off than the husband. The 
trader got his slaves and twenty mules together 
and started overland to Louisville. 

Everything went well until they got within 
a few miles of Louisville when the husband of 
the woman that sold the two negroes overtook 
the caravan. He went up to the slave-trader and 
told him that he wanted the two boys. The trader 
told him that he had paid good prices for them 
and he would not give them up. This enraged the 
other and he got off his horse and stopped the two 
boys and told them to step out of the road in 
order that the others could pass. The trader came 
up and got off his horse and told Mr. Jeff erys (that 
was the name of the man that owned the two 
bright colored negroes) that he would not let him 
have them under any circumstances. Mr. Jeff erys 
told him to make out a bill of sale at the exact 
price he paid his wife and he would pay him the 
money. The trader said that no man could rob 
him in that way in broad daylight, that he had a 
bargain of one thousand dollars in the two boys 
and nothing less than that would get them. Jef- 
f erys told him to study five minutes what he would 
do — accept his proposal or not. The trader said, 
he would settle it then and made a lunge at Jef- 

183 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

ferys, who knocked him down and kicked him un- 
til he was more dead than ahve. The man that 
the trader had helping him tried to interfere when 
one of the boys gave him a thrashing. It looked as 
if there would be a regular stampede of mules 
and negroes. Mr. Jefferys told the men leading 
the mules and the other men whom the trader 
had bought to stop and stay all together, that the 
trader would be all right in a short time. They 
obeyed Mr. Jefferys, as nearly all of them were 
well acquainted with him. It was a good while be- 
fore the trader recovered sufficiently to ride his 
horse. Jefferys told him he could take the money 
he paid for the two boys or he would get noth- 
ing, as his wife had no legal right to sell them; 
that they were not her property. The trader final- 
ly said that he felt that he had been robbed and 
abused, but he would take the money he had paid. 
They were not more than two miles from the 
suburbs of Louisville. Mr. Jefferys. told the two 
boys to walk fast in order to get away from the 
trader's men and they went to Louisville. The 
first thing Mr. Jefferys did was to hunt some one 
who was authorized, and had free papers made out 
for the boys. He left his horse in a livery barn 
and took passage on a steamer to Cincinnati with 
the two boys. When he arrived there he found 
a business friend of his who was opposed to slav- 

184 



THOMAS JEFPERYS FREES NEGROES 

ery and related the whole affair including his re- 
lationship to the boys, and asked him to send the 
boys to Richmond, Indiana, where they would find 
legions of friends, as it was dangerous to have 
them near the border where hundreds of free ne- 
groes were being kidnapped and sold into slavery. 
He called the two boys to come and in the presence 
of his friend he gave each of them $500 in 
gold and saw them started for Richmond. Mr. 
Jefferys, through his Cincinnati friend, kept in 
touch with the boys as long as he lived. They 
were capable men and did well. 

When the slave-trader reached Louisville he 
made arrangements with a slow sternwheel steam 
boat to carry his slaves and mules to Memphis. 
There were a number of anti-slavery guards and 
guides in the three cities surrounding the falls of 
the Ohio. While they were loading the mules and 
slaves on the boat, Mr. Beel, the slave trader, was 
not well and unable to give any help, owing to his 
combat with Mr. Jefferys and wanted to hire help 
about the work. A young man who appeared to 
be very strong and resolute called to see Mr. Beel 
and wanted to hire to help him until he got to 
Evansville, Ind., saying that he would work for 
small wages. Mr. Beel hired him to help his other 
man in caring for the negroes and mules saying 
that he was not well and would be glad to be re- 

185 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

lieved of the care for a few days. Before the boat 
left Louisville the guard got permission to go up 
town on some business. He went to the telegraph 
office and sent a cipher dispatch to Mr. Hansen to 
have two men get on the boat either at Cannelton 
or Rockport. Mr. Beel was no better the next 
morning. The boat was a very slow one but was 
constantly pounding on. The mate said it would 
be about the middle of the next night before they 
would get to Cannelton. There were twenty-three 
negroes in all and there was a bad feeling between 
the negroes. It seemed that there was a feudal 
feeling among them. Those from one neighbor- 
hood would not have anything to do with those 
from another neighborhood. One likely middle- 
aged man seemed to be much the shrewdest of 
any of them and the guard talked to him about 
making an attempt to gain his freedom. He said he 
would do anything to be a free man, but how could 
he do anything? He did not know where to go. 
He was informed that there were men who would 
guide them to freedom ; that all he would have to 
do was to follow the guide, and he would take them 
to a country where they would be free as long as 
they lived. This greatly interested the negro. 
The guard told him that he could talk with about 
nine or ten other negroes and find if they would 
want to try to gain their freedom. He was cau- 

186 



THOMAS JEFFERYS FREES NEGROES 

tioned to be very careful about the way he 
talked to them, and it must be a perfect secret. 
During the day he came to the guard several 
times and said that he had found eight men who 
would go with him in making the attempt. The 
others would not have anything to do with him 
or the eight who would make the attempt. The 
guard had him to see that his eight men slept in a 
forward part of the boat so that they could easily 
get off when the time came. It was nearly 10 
o'clock when the boat arrived at Cannelton. Two 
other guards got aboard there. It would be after 
midnight when they reached Rockport. The two 
new men found that the men they wanted to see 
were on the lower deck and in charge of the ne- 
groes, the owner was in the cabin and the other 
hired man was asleep. Getting a chance, the 
guard had the negro who had persuaded the eight 
men to attempt to gain their freedom to talk 
with the other two guards and it was arranged 
that v/hen they should arrive at Rockport, where 
there was a lot of freight to unload and two 
hundred barrels of flour to load, the nine negroes 
would help the deck hands and slip away one at 
a time. The two guards would be near and they 
soon would all get together. 

When the boat arrived at Rockport the ne- 
groes were very busy helping the few deck hands 

187 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

and when the boat backed out into the river pre- 
paring to start the nine negroes were with the 
two guards slipping away. They went west of 
Rockport, and just before daylight found a large 
cornfield into which they went and remained there 
all day. One of the guards went to Ira Caswell's 
to notify him to have some provisions prepared, 
that they could get before day the next morning, 
as they would be there for it. Mr. Caswell had 
two days before thrashed wheat and there was a 
large straw stack, the straw had been stacked 
on a heavy scaffold to make a shelter for his stock 
during the winter. During the day before the ne- 
groes were to be there, Mr. Caswell put a large 
amount of loose straw into the end of the entry 
made by stacking the straw on the scaffold and 
made a most perfect place to hide the negroes. 
Just about 4 o'clock the next morning the negroes 
were there with the guards and were all very 
hungry. As soon as they had eaten they were 
taken to the straw stack where they had good soft 
beds of straw. As soon as it was night, they be- 
gan their march for our big cellar, where they ar- 
rived a short time before daylight. 

Sometime after leaving Rockport a coal barge 
was taken in tow and fastened along the side of 
the boat near the scuttle hole where the coal could 
be thrown into the hold of the boat near the boil- 

188 



THOMAS JEFFERYS FREES NEGROES 

ers. The deck hands and the coal company's 
men were a good while shoveling that coal into 
the steamboat. They had run seven or eight 
miles and were in sight of Evansville at the first 
signs of dawn. The guard awakened the other 
hired man and went up to Mr. Beel's stateroom 
where he found him very sick. Beel paid the guard 
his wages and when the latter came down the 
hired man was just getting onto the lower deck. 
The other fourteen negroes were scattered over 
the deck and it appeared that all were there. When 
the boat touched the warf , the guard went ashore 
and was soon mixed with the crowd. The boat 
had but little freight to unload or load and was 
soon on her way down the river. It is not known 
how far they went before the nine negroes were 
missed. It was learned afterwards that it was be- 
lieved that the negroes were on the coal barge 
w^hen it was cast loose from the steamer. It was 
further learned that the slave dealer was delirious 
for many days before he got to Memphis, and did 
not know anything. The man that he had hired 
was a dummy and not capable of such a charge. 

The fugitives were in our cellar all that day 
and there were two other negroes in it that had 
been there for several days waiting for more to 
come when we would send them north. Mr. Hill 
stayed with us to help take the eleven negroes 

189 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

to White river. Word had been sent to Dr. Posey 
and he advised us to take the fugitives to White 
river a httle east of Wright's ferry where he 
would have skiffs for crossing and guides on the 
north side to take them to the next station. When 
it became dark we got out two wagons and put 
five negroes in one and six in the other, with the 
two guards. Mr. Hill and myself made fifteen 
people in the party. Everything went well until 
we got about one-half mile beyond Hawthorn's 
saw mill when three men stepped out into the 
road about fifty feet in front of our foremost 
wagon and ordered us to halt. The two guards 
and Mr. Hill were off the wagon with their guns 
in a minute and asked them what they wanted. 
They said that they had legal authority to ex- 
amine every wagon that travelled that road and 
they wanted to know what we were loaded with. 
"You are highway robbers," said Mr. Hill, "and 
if you don't leave the road open we will blow you 
through," and he started toward them. They 
made a hasty get-away and we did not see or hear 
any more of them. When we arrived at the river 
we found Mr. Stucky, and in a little while we had 
the negroes over the river and in the hands of 
three strong stalwart men who said they would 
have them in a safe retreat before morning. 

Soon after we got back home one of the fish- 

190 



THOMAS JEFFERYS FREES NEGROES 

ermen from between Rockport and Owensboro 
came up to the house and knocked at the door. 
Father told me to put on my clothes and go out 
and see that the negroes were put into the cellar. 
There were three negroes. This guard had been 
at our place many times. He and his partner 
had crossed the negroes over and he had piloted 
them all the way, coming by Mr. Caswell's where 
they were fed and some provisions given them. 
When the guard got to Mr. Hill's he found that 
the latter gentleman was at our house, so he came 
on. The negroes were strong lusty fellows. We 
decided to keep them there until more came. This 
guard said that there would be a number of men 
and women cross the river at their station in two 
or three days. We did not think it necessary to 
keep guard over the three men. My father told 
them that no one had any business in the cellar 
but him and me ; and if any one else came in there 
to keep hid and if the intruder came onto them to 
give him a scare. At that time we had working 
for us a Tennessean who was most bitter pro-slav- 
ery in his views. This man was working on a 
little farm away from the home place and board- 
ed with the family living on that place. We had 
no idea of his coming to the home farm, but one 
night while the three men were in the cellar this 
man came to our house and, as it was late, he de- 

191 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

cided to sleep in the barn. During the night he 
heard someone talking and thought it was in the 
cellar. He got up and opened the cellar door and 
went down into it and called out several times: 
"You thieves get out of here." He finally got up 
to where the men were standing and one of them 
gave him a shove that sent him to the floor. Not 
satisfied with this he got up and went after them 
again w^hen one of the negroes knocked him down 
and the three dragged him to the cellar door and 
put him out. During this scuffle he was pretty- 
badly hurt. He Hmped up to the house and called 
my father and told him that there were thieves in 
the barn cellar and they had used him roughly. 
Father got a light and found that the man had 
been roughly used and was skinned up pretty bad- 
ly about his face. Father had him wash himself 
and put turpentine on the bruises and had him 
go to bed. We were a little nonplussed to know 
how we could keep this fellow from seeing the ne- 
groes the next morning. We had a strong pork 
house standing in our yard. Father went with 
me and a trusted hand and had the negroes go 
with us to the pork house, where he locked them 
in. At that time we had a butting sheep that 
had been a terror to everybody on the farm. He 
had become so bad that we had him in a close pen 
near the big barn. We decided to put that sheep 

192 




GEORGE W. HILL. 



A Member of the Executive Committee of the Anti-Slavery 
League. 



THOMAS JEFFERYS FREES NEGROES 

into the cellar and when the wounded fellow got 
up the next morning have him go to the cellar 
and see if he could find anything of the robbers 
that gave him such a thumping. We had a time 
putting that savage sheep in the cellar, but finally- 
got him in and shut the door on him. Early the 
next morning the injured man was up and looked 
like he had been in a battle royal. He told father 
that he was going to the cellar and see if he could 
find his hat, which he lost the night before. The 
two young men working for us and I went with 
him, opened the cellar door and he went in. As 
soon as he was in the cellar we heard him yell to 
let him out, the sheep had butted him down. As 
soon as we opened the door he came out in a hur- 
ry, the sheep butting him every step he made up 
the ladder! My father was out there by this 
time and when the butted fellow got so that he 
could talk, he said, '1 will kill that ram." Father 
told him that was what gave him such a thump- 
ing last night. The two hands were ready with 
a white lie and said that the ram got out of his 
pen the evening before and they put him in the 
cellar. 



193 



CHAPTER XVII 



JOHN DOLE 

One of the anti-slavery guards in the Illi- 
nois Division, with his residence at Cairo, Illinois, 
had a desperate battle with a lot of seasoned 
toughs at Cairo, 111. This man's name was John 
Dole. He was from the state of Maine and had 
been working in a logging camp for many years 
until he was hired to come west and work for 
the Anti-Slavery League. Dole was a man of 
great physical power. 

There was a negro barber who had a shop 
near the house where Dole roomed, and they be- 
came well acquainted. Dole made many inquiries 
about the slave owners in the southwestern part 
of Kentucky from the barber, who had been raised 
in that part of Kentucky. This barber was bought 
and paid for by an Englishman of means, travel- 
ing through that region. This Englishman took 
George Vest to Cairo, bought a small room and 
fitted it up in style and furnished it for a barber 
shop, then made Vest a deed to the lot and also 
gave him his free papers. One Saturday even- 
ing Dole was in the shop being shaved. There 
was a fellow, who was evidently drinking, in an- 

194 



JOHN DOLE'S ANTI-SLAVERY WORK 

other chair, who kept up a running conversation 
of slang with three other cronies of his in the 
shop. Finally he turned to Dole and asked: **Are 
you an Englishman?'* Dole replied that he was 
not. The fellow then said that he thought he 
might be another fool Englishman who would 
want to buy a slave's freedom, as the negro-lov- 
ing one did, that bought this barber and set him 
up in business. Dole said nothing. In a little 
while one of the toughs said: "I never saw an 
Englishman, a Scotchman or an Irishman, that 
was not a mean, dishonest man." This angered 
Dole who said: *T am an Irishman and as honest 
as any man." One of them said : "You are a negro- 
loving liar." As quick as a flash Dole knocked 
that one down and kicked the other two out of 
the shop into the street! The fellow in the chair 
was a coward and begged Dole not to hit him. 

The superintendent of the Illinois Division 
knew that Dole could not do the kind of work he 
needed and sent him up the river to Evansville 
with a letter to Hansen in which he explained to 
Hansen that Dole had trouble with the tough 
element in Cairo and he knew that if he kept him 
there he would kill some of them. He said to 
Hansen : "If you have any need for some one to do 
some real fighting call on Dole, he has the ability 
and the will to do a good job." Dole secured a 

195 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

room near the mouth of Pigeon creek, near which 
there were a number of saw mills. Being a log- 
ging man he was often about the mills watching 
them work. In this way he became acquainted 
with a Kentuckian named Davis, who owned a 
large body of timber land near Green river. In 
the many conversations that Davis had with Dole 
he learned that he had charge of a logging camp 
in the state of Maine for several years. Want- 
ing a man that was competent to take charge of 
a logging camp, he hired Dole to go up Green 
river near South Carrollton where a logging 
camp was to be made. Dole saw Mr. Hansen who 
was willing for him to go, as that would be a 
good place to have some anti-slavery work done, 
but he advised Dole to be very careful and keep 
out of trouble. Davis and Dole selected a suit- 
able place for the camp in a dense woods. A 
large number of slaves were hired to help about 
the work. This was in the early part of Septem- 
ber, the most leisure time for men who raise to- 
bacco, as there was nothing doing in that line ex- 
cept to watch the firing of tobacco in barns. It 
was too early to commence the stripping. Han- 
sen got Job Turner and Dole together and had an 
understanding with them. It was agreed that 
Turner would try to secure a trusty negro that 
would work among his race to aid them in se- 

196 



JOHN DOLE'S ANTI-SLAVERY WORK 

curing their freedom. Turner found it a difficult 
proposition to get the right kind of a man. 
Strict rules had been adopted among the slave 
owners and the patrols were much more rigid in 
their examination of all strangers and idle negroes 
without passes. 

Mr. Davis had an order for several hundred 
thousand feet of logs that he would have to get 
out on a body of land that he owned not far from 
Spottsville. It was agreed that he would stay 
at the old camp near South Carrollton and send 
Dole to get out the special order. They were soon 
m.oved and the timber was being piled on the 
river bank very rapidly. Dole was very busy. He 
had a number of teams hired, nearly all of them 
being driven by slaves of men on farms in the 
country around where he was working. Late in 
the afternoon of one day a young negro woman 
came hurridly to the camp and inquired for Pete 
who was driving one of the teams. She was 
greatly excited. Dole told her that Pete would 
be there in a little while. She went into the shanty 
and seemed not to want anyone of the drivers 
to see her. It was not long before Pete came. 
As soon as he had unloaded his wagon Dole told 
him to tie his horses to a post and go into the 
shanty v/here someone wanted to see him. He had 
been in the cook shanty but a very short time 



197 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

when he came out and told Dole that he would 
not take the team home ; that his master had sold 
his wife away from him and his two little girls; 
that he intended to go and see his master and if 
he did not undo that sale he would kill him and 
then run for the north. Dole tried to calm the 
justlj^ mad man and told him that there was a 
better waj^ of doing than he had planned. Pete 
asked him how there would be a better way. Dole 
asked him how old the children were and learned 
that they were ten and twelve years old. Dole 
asked when his wife would have to leave him. 
Pete's wife said that she went into the mistress' 
room and found her crying, and she said: "Jane, 
you are sold to a slave-dealer and have only two 
more days to stay here." Dole told the man and 
his wife he believed that he could save them from 
this separation, but was afraid they would tell it 
to some one. Pete said : ''Before God I swear that 
if you save my family for me, I would die for 
you." Dole asked Pete if the children could walk 
ten miles and he replied that they could, fifty if 
need be. His wife said she could walk any dis- 
tance. Dole asked Pete if he and his family could 
meet him at the forks of the Henderson and 
Evansville road at an hour after night to come to 
the road west of the shanty so that no patrols 
would be in the way. When Dole got to the forks 

198 



JOHN DOLE'S ANTI-SLAVERY WORK 

of the road he found the family there and they 
made a hurried march to the river bank opposite 
Evansville. Turner had taught Dole the signal 
and gave him some turpentine balls, Dole lit one 
of them and threw it up ; this was answered from 
the middle of the river and soon a skiff was at the 
water's edge. It conveyed all of them to the 
city. The negroes were put in hiding for a while 
and were then taken to the north and to Canada 
and freedom. 

It was almost daylight when Dole got back 
to his shanty. Pete in his excitement had left his 
wagon in the yard. Many teams came and went 
to work, but not Pete. In an hour or so the over- 
seer of Pete's master's farm (the owner was away 
from home) came to the camp on the hunt of 
Pete and saw that Pete had left his wagon, but 
had taken the team home. The overseer went 
back and soon another negro with the team 
hitched to the wagon come and went to work. 
Along about noon the yelp of bloodhounds was 
heard coming on the trail of the negro family. 

The evening before the family attempted to 
escape it was agreed that after they left the 
camp, Pete should put a quantity of capsicum on 
the ground along the trail they were following. 
This powdered red pepper had been given Pete by 
Dole who had shown him how to use it. The ne- 

199 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

gro family did not come to the shanty but went 
several hundred feet back of it to the road that 
they wanted to travel. When the dogs got to 
where this pepper had been scattered on the 
ground they stopped and commenced to rub their 
noses on the ground and snort and sneeze in great 
fashion and would not take the trail any further. 
There were at least a dozen men and boys with 
the dogs. The owner of the dogs procured water 
and washed the dog's noses, but it did no good. 
When he tried to persuade the dogs to take the 
trail they would He down at the side of the road 
and howl. The dog-man was furious and cursed 
the people of the north long and loud. The most 
of the men in the hunt had teams hauling logs. 
They gave up the attempt to trail the negroes and 
went up to the log yard to see Dole, who was busy 
scaling logs as they came in. The overseer asked 
him if he was the cause of Pete leaving his wagon. 
Dole told him that he was not and that he did not 
know when Pete went home and was surprised this 
morning to see the wagon in the yard. The dog- 
man went up to where the two men were talking 
and said to the overseer: "You need not put any 
confidence in anything that fellow tells you. He 
is from the north where they are all lying, thiev- 
ing abolitionists." This was more than Dole 
would stand and he made a grab at the fellow's 

200 



JOHN DOLE'S ANTI-SLAVERY WORK 

leg, jerked him off his horse and gave him 
such a thumping that he was badly bruised up. 

Dole said to those around him: "Gentlemen, 
I am here working for one of your citizens and 
not bothering anyone ; but I will not take such in- 
tended insults as that coward gave me." The 
men he was talking to knew that he had done 
nothing to the dog-man but what he deserved, and 
they did not blame him. The work went on as 
usual, Mr. Davis came down to see the work and 
was much surprised to find that more than half 
the work was done in three months, which he 
thought would take at least a year. Dole told him 
about his trouble with the owner of the dogs. 
Davis told him that he had done the right thing; 
that if he had not resented the insult they would 
have become so domineering that he could not 
have stayed there; that the object lesson he gave 
that fellow was satisfactory evidence to all that 
he would resent an insult. 

Job Turner in one of his rounds went to see 
Dole and told him that the family he started on 
the road to liberty had gone on the road to Cana- 
da and that an old trusted negro man who lived 
about three miles east of Henderson, Ky., was in 
the employ of the Anti-Slavery League and that 
he was w^orthy of confidence ; that he had worked 
with the two fishermen at Evansville and had de- 

201 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

livered many runaway negroes to them who were 
afterward sent to Canada, also that Uncle Simon 
was too old to do much work and was permitted to 
do pretty much as he wished. Turner said that 
he would have this old negro call on Dole and for 
him to be on the lookout for him; that his hair 
was as white as cotton and was in a great white 
roll around his neck when he wore his hat. The 
work went on and the contract would be finished 
in one month more. Dole was not satisfied with 
the work he had done for the Anti-Slavery League. 
He had learned from one of the hands that one of 
the most faithful workers in the cam.p, v/ith his 
wife and 16 year old daughter, were to be sold 
soon to satisfy a mortgage given by their master 
to a rich tobacco merchant at Henderson. The 
man was in great trouble for fear he and his 
family would be separated. Dole was anxious to 
help this family. One day he saw a very old ne- 
gro with one of his teamsters unloading logs in 
the yard. Dole went out to the men and said: *Ts 
this Uncle Simon?" ''Yes, I am the man," the old 
fellow said. "Come into my room and rest," said 
Dole, "that work is too hard for you." The old 
man went in and remained for a long time. Dole 
made an arrangement with him to go to Hender- 
son the next day and find out all about that sale 
which was to take place there. It was two days 

202 



JOHN DOLE'S ANTI-SLAVERY WORK 

before the old man returned and informed Dole 
that the sale did not take place, but the tobacco 
merchant had bought the family at a private sale 
and was to send them south in two weeks. Uncle 
Simon said that he had a little talk with the team- 
ster and he was very uneasy about what would 
become of them. Uncle Simon said that he would 
have the teamster call on Dole the next day and 
then he could make such arrangem.ents as he 
thought best for the family, and that he would 
be there again the next day after that when they 
could talk further about the family. The teamster 
was true to his promise and called on Dole and told 
him of his fears of being separated from his fam- 
ily. Dole asked him if he would make an attempt 
to gain his freedom, if he had a chance. He said 
he would, but he did not know how to go about it, 
or wiiere to go. Dole told him if he would have 
his family with him the following night at the 
cross roads near the little church on the Hender- 
son road, he would find some one there to guide 
him to the Ohio river and across it and finally to 
Canada and freedom. The teamster was there the 
next morning and hauled logs all day. Uncle 
Simon came, true to his promise. Early in the day 
Dole told him the arrangement and asked him if 
he could be away at night without creating sus- 
picion. Uncle Simon said that he was always 

203 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

expected to do up the chores at night and he 
could not get to the meeting place in time, but he 
could go to Evansville at once and have the young 
fishermen send two or three guides and guards 
who would guide the negro family to Evansville 
where skiffs would be waiting to take them over 
the river. This was thought to be the best way. 
Uncle Simon went on his trip which was a big one 
for so old a man. When it was dark Dole went 
to the meeting place to see that everything went 
off right. When he got to the little church on 
the Henderson road he found the family hid in 
some bushes, and in a little while three men came 
to the church and stopped. Dole knew that they 
were the guides. The family was put in their 
charge and they were in a little while on the march 
for the Ohio river. Dole went back to his shanty. 
The guides had no trouble and by ten o'clock were 
at the river, which they crossed, and were put in 
the care of Willard Carpenter's coachman who 
finally took them to the cellar under Mr. Carpen- 
ter's barn. The next morning when it was found 
that the family had run away, there was great ex- 
citement among the people in that neighborhood. 
The tobacco merchant who had bought the fam- 
ily had cancelled the mortgage and was at his 
rope's end. He organized a large company of men 
to hunt for the runaways. The evening that Dole 

204 



JOHN DOLE'S ANTI-SLAVERY WORK 

was at the little church to see them off, he took a 
half pound of capsicum and put it in the tracks 
where he found the family in the thicket, so if 
they should use blood hounds, they could not track 
them to the Ohio river as the Anti-Slavery League 
did not want the slave hunter to get any clue as 
to where they went. The hunt was kept up for 
quite a while but finally it died down and Mr. 
Carpenter sent the family to Mr. Street's who al- 
ready had two in his cellar. We had four in my 
father's barn cellar; this made nine that we de- 
livered to Dr. Posey's coal bank. 

The work on the large contract was nearly 
completed when Mr. Davis came down and wanted 
Dole to get out another contract of two hundred 
and fifty thousand feet of timber. Dole told him 
that if he would give him a vacation of twenty 
days he would do it. This was agreed to and 
Mr. Davis told Dole that he could take the vaca- 
tion as soon as he wanted to, and that he would 
shut down the work at South Carrolton for that 
time and take charge of this work himself. Dole 
went to Evansville to see Mr. Hanson and get 
his consent to his further working in the logging 
camp. He found Hanson and told him that he 
had done so little for the anti-slavery cause, that 
he felt ashamed of himself; he wanted to do all 
he could and that if there was any place con- 

205 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

sidered dangerous he would like to have it, as he 
wanted to do that kind of work. Mr. Hanson ad- 
vised him to accept the Davis offer and, through 
Uncle Simon, he could do some more work for the 
anti-slavery cause. 

Job Turner went over the roads near the 
logging camp once every twenty days. Dole re- 
turned to his camp and relieved Mr. Davis. Only 
a few days were needed to finish the old contract. 
Then work commenced in earnest on the new con- 
tract. Uncle Simon came to the camp one day and 
informed Dole that Job Turner wanted to see him, 
''tomorrow night at 8 o'clock at the church on the 
Henderson road." 

Dole met Turner at the appointed place. The 
two men conferred as to what could be done to 
aid the poor slaves, whom they knew, to gain their 
freedom. Turner said that on the route over 
which he went there were four young men, ap- 
parently white, yet they were slaves and owned 
by their own father! The people in that neigh- 
borhood did not hesitate to say that these fine 
boys were the children of John Day. There were 
two older children, sisters of these boys and 
daughters of this man Day. They were fine look- 
ing women. When they were grown-up this brut- 
ish father took them to New Orleans and sold them 
for a fancy price to some sporting toughs. The 

206 



JOHN DOLE'S ANTI-SLAVERY WORK 

boys had told Turner that they felt humiliated 
and would be glad to go where no one would know 
their history. Day owned a large farm and many 
fine teams. The corn crop in the year 1854 was 
almost a failure and the long drouth cut the to- 
bacco crop very short. Day had no work for his 
teams so he was glad to hire them out. Turner 
suggested to Dole that if he could use extra teams 
he could probably hire them from Day and it was 
likely that two or three of the boys would be with 
the teams. Dole said he would write Mr. Davis 
and tell him about the Day teams being for hire, 
and that he would be glad to get the teams for 
two months. Turner's concluding advice was, ''if 
you get the teams, and the boys with them, notify 
Uncle Simon, who is a cousin to their mother, and 
you two can fall upon some plan to help the boys 
gain their freedom.'' 

In a few days four of Day's teams came to 
Dole's camp to haul logs. Three of the white- 
skinned boys, a black slave and an overseer com- 
posed the party. The overseer came to remain 
a few days and see that they were properly fixed- 
up for the two months stay. They built a shed 
to shelter the teams, and pole shanty for the 
slaves to sleep in. The overseer boarded with a 
farmer nearby, during his stay. The new teams 
were working and logs were coming in very fast. 

207 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Each week Day sent provisions for his hands and 
feed for the horses. The elder of the four brothers 
who remained at home, occasionly drove the team 
bringing the suppHes. One evening when Uncle 
Simon was there, he rode part of the way to his 
home in the Day wagon as it returned. The driver 
was the elder brother, whose name was Jackson 
Dean, who took his name from his mother. Jack- 
son told Uncle Simon that it was hard for him to 
get away from home as he was depended on to do 
the work about the barn, to milk the cows and have 
wood in the house for all the fires. Uncle Simon 
told him there might be a way made that would 
be easy for him and if there should be, would he 
go? Jackson said that he would do anything in 
order to get away to freedom. Day's teams had 
been hauling logs nearly two months, and would 
be there only one more week. Uncle Simon had 
been with the boys in the woods several times and 
found them anxious to gain their freedom, but did 
not want to leave the elder brother, if he would 
go they would all go. Jackson came the next 
Saturday with the last load of camp suppHes; 
they would go home the next Saturday. Uncle 
Simon visited the logging camp several times dur- 
ing the last week of their stay. Turner came on 
Thursday evening and consulted with Dole. They 
did not want the boys to escape from the camp 

208 




JOHN DOLE. 
An employee of the Anti-Slavery League. 



JOHN DOLE'S ANTI-SLAVERY WORK 

but planned that they should run away from home 
after they returned there. Turner would see 
Jackson Dean and arrange for him and the other 
boys to go on the next Thursday night to a place 
known as the beaver slide, well known to the 
boys, where they would find guides to take them 
over the Ohio river, and on north to freedom. It 
was about 8 o'clock when the boys reached the 
appointed place. Here they found three guides 
and were soon on the road to the trusty fisher- 
men's shack, east of Owensboro. By 2 o'clock they 
were across the river. As day was showing in 
the east they came to the big hurricane thicket. 
Here they remained in hiding until night, resting. 
One of the guards went on to Mr. Caswell's to have 
provisions prepared for supper and word was sent 
to Mr. Hill to be ready to conduct the fugitives to 
our barn cellar. When daylight came the guides 
could hardly believe their eyes — they saw four 
nice looking white men escaping from slavery! 
As the party of guides and fugitives started for 
Mr. Caswell's it began a misting rain, making very 
hard walking. And the night was so very dark 
that it was difficult to keep the road. When they 
reached Caswell's supper was ready and was 
served. Mr. Hill was waiting and as soon as sup- 
per was over, their journey was continued, ar- 
riving at our barn cellar about daybreak. Mr. 

209 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Hill told my father that the boys were as white 
as the average white man, without a mark that 
showed negro blood. When breakfast for the 
fugitives was ready, I went with my father and 
Mr. Hill to see them. They were nice looking and 
intelligent young white men. I yet remember 
what my father said when he saw the boys : 'This 
shows the damning curse of slavery, a man using 
his own slave woman as concubines and rais- 
ing children that are of his own blood, and yet 
are his slaves !" 

My father and Mr. Hill thought it would be 
perfectly safe for the boys to travel during the 
day time in any direction that they wanted to 
go. Jackson Dean was spokesman for the boys 
and said they feared their old master, Day; they 
knew he was a very determined man and would 
do anything in his power to capture them; and 
anyone from the section where they came from 
would know them. Jackson further said they did 
not want to be a burden to their rescuers but they 
would be glad to have the protection of the anti- 
slavery people for several days yet and by that 
time they would be so far north that there would 
be but little danger of being captured. My father 
held quite an amount of the emergency fund be- 
longing to the Anti-Slavery League. He and Han- 
son controlled the fund, using it on this route up 

210 



JOHN DOLE'S ANTI-SLAVERY WORK 

as far as Petersburg, Indiana. Every escaping 
slave who went over this route was supplied out 
of this fund, so that when they reached Canada 
they would not be entirely destitute. During the 
day that the boys were in our cellar, father gave 
each of them a pocket-book, a purse and twenty- 
five dollars. When night came two of the guards, 
Mr. Hill and I, with the four white boys, took the 
road for Dr. Posey's coal bank. We reached there 
without anything occurring worthy of mention. 
When we told Mr. Stucky that he would find in 
the morning in the coal bank, four good looking 
white men he replied : "Have you got all the blacks 
and are now bringing in the white people?" 

It was several days before Dole heard any- 
thing about the running away of the boys. One 
day one of his log haulers told him that his wife, 
who lived in the neighborhood of Mr. Day, learned 
that when Day found that the boys had run away 
he said if they could get along without him he 
could get along without them. 

One evening Dole was in the timber looking 
for some trees that he wanted the sawyers to cut. 
After he had started for the logging camp one of 
the sawyers followed him, pretending that he 
wanted a file of a special pattern for his saw. This 
man advised Dole to be careful how he went into 
the timber, the blood-hound man who he had given 

211 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

such a thumping, had been seen several times dur- 
ing the past week wandering around through the 
timber. He was accompanied by another man — a 
stranger — and both men carried guns. 

Late that evening Turner came by the camp 
on the v;ay to the city of Evansville. Dole told 
him what he had heard. Turner advised him to 
not leave the camp and to keep a good lookout for 
danger; that when he reached the city that he 
would have two men sent to him. These he could 
use in helping discover and capture the vicious 
fellows. The sawyer who got the file, came the 
next morning and told Dole that on the day before 
just after they had left the timber, the two men 
with guns hurried up to where his mate was rest- 
ing and waiting for his return. They asked the 
sawyer if Dole had been there, saying they want- 
ed to see him. "My mate told them/ said the 
sawyer, "that you had gone with me to see some 
trees that you wanted cut; the two men went in 
that direction, pointing in the opposite direction 
from which w^e went. 

Dole told the sawyer that there would prob- 
ably be two strange men in the woods by the after- 
noon of that day and for him and his mate to 
pay no attention to them. Dole asked the sawyer 
to go and bring back to camp his mate, which was 
done. Dole told the men that he wanted them to 

212 



JOHN DOLE'S ANTI-SLAVERY WORK 

do but little work for a day or two, and keep him 
po-ted on the movements of the two men who evi- 
dently v/ere hunting him, giving each of them five 
dollars. At noon two men came to the camp with 
a letter for Dole. These were the sleuths, sent by 
Turner. The letter was from Mr. Hanson, who 
advised him to not unnecessarily expose himself to 
danger. The two men sent to him were good ones 
and suggested that after they had run the dog- 
man away, he could use them to guide any travel- 
ers to a safe harbor. He said the two detectives 
could remain with Dole for a while. 

The men were on the watch for three days 
without seeing anyone and had almost concluded 
the two suspicious characters had left that lo- 
cality. The detectives and the two sawyers hid 
in a small thicket where, unseen from without, 
they had a good view of all around them for quite 
a distance. One of the sawyers watching saw the 
two men with guns at "trail arms", slipping up 
toward the logging camp. One of the sawyers 
hurried to the camp to put Dole on guard. The 
other three followed the two suspicious men. 
They had gone about two hundred yards, when 
one of the guards saw the two men peering over 
a large log in the direction of the camp. The three 
men slipped up behind the men, making the least 
possible noise. The dog-man and his partner were 

213 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

SO intent on watching the camp (which was not 
more than one hundred yards away) that the 
guards approached within fifty feet of them and 
ordered them to hold up their hands. They made 
some show of resistance but were told to sur- 
render or be killed. The two guards kept them 
covered with their rifles, while the third man took 
away their arms and then tied their hands be- 
hind them. 

"Who are you" they indignantly demanded, 
"and what right have you to capture us?" 

The guards told them that they were strang- 
ers in that part of the country, on a hunting ex- 
cursion; that they saw the prisoners slipping up 
on the men in the camp, as if they aimed to com- 
mit murder, and so interfered. The prisoners 
were asked what they meant by slipping up to the 
camp? They were told if they could give a reas- 
onable explanation of their actions, they would be 
released. The blood hound owner said that a 
man in that camp had abused him without cause 
and he wanted revenge. He said he did not want 
to kill the man but intended to cripple him by 
breaking an arm or leg. The guards told him if 
he had stated facts, that settlement of the affair 
was betv\'een him and the man he intended to 
cripple ; that they would bring them together and 
they could adjust their grievances. The prisoners 

214 



JOHN DOLE'S ANTI-SLAVERY WORK 

strongly objected to being turned over to Dole, as 
he would kill both of them. The guards insisted 
that they would not be doing right to turn them 
loose, when they had confessed that they were 
there to shoot Dole. The prisoners begged to be 
released, promising to never come back to that 
section again. One of the guards went to get some 
paper on which to write a parole. On reaching the 
camp he related the situation to Dole who was 
perfectly satisfied. The guard returned with the 
paper and wrote the parole as follows : 

"This is to certify that we, the undersigned, 
do agree and hereby obligate ourselves to keep this 
parole under the penalty of being returned to the 
grand jury of Henderson County, Ky., for attempt- 
ing to kill John Dole, the Superintendent of the 
Davis logging camp, at Spottsville, Ky. We agree 
that we will not go within five miles of said camp 
during the next twelve months, or have any one 
representing us, go within five miles of that camp. 
Done at Spottsville, Ky., October 13th, 1854. 
Signed James Thorp and 

Henry Scales. 

One day while Dole was scaling the logs of 
one of the haulers, he saw that he had a bad bruise 
on the side of his face and asked what caused it. 
The man answered that his master had come home 
last night under the influence of liquor and com- 

215 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

ing to his shanty while he, with his wife and four 
children were eating supper, and abused all of 
them, using the most filthy language at his com- 
mand. Finally he told them he would sell the wife 
and two oldest children to a slave buyer who would 
be in that section within ten days. The teamster 
said he pleaded with his master to not break up 
his home, when he picked up a chair and struck 
the slave on the side of his head and face. 

Dole was furiously angry and asked the ne- 
gro why he did not take his family and run away ? 
The man replied that he did not know where to 
go. Dole asked if he would take his family and 
go if he was sure that he would gain his freedom. 
**Yes, indeed" was the earnest reply, "I would 
walk on my knees to help those who helped me 
save my family." 

Dole told him to have his family at a desig- 
nated place, well-known to both of them, on the 
next Saturday night at 8 o'clock and that he 
would be put in charge of guides who would take 
them across the Ohio river and to Canada and 
freedom. Dole told him that he could miss the 
patrols by going across farms nearly all the 
journey. The two guides left with Dole were at 
the place agreed upon with a good supply of cap- 
sicum which was sprinkled around where the ne- 
groes had walked. They were soon on their way 

216 



JOHN DOLE'S ANTI-SLAVERY WORK 

to the Ohio river which they cr sussed in the fisher- 
men's skiffs and were in a short time hurried on 
north and to Canada. 

Dole soon finished his contract with Davis and 
was sent by Hanson to New Albany. He had good 
grit and did whatever he attempted to do, well. 
I have no data of his work after he left Evansville, 
but I feel certain that he made good wherever he 
was sent. 



217 



CHAPTER XVIII 



BEECHER^S VIEW OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE 
LAW 

(From Readings in Indiana History, Page 382) 
August 4, 1854. About nine years ago there 
came to Indianapolis, Indiana, a colored man 
named John Freeman. He brought with him some 
few hundred dollars, a part of which he invested 
in real estate. He was a painter, white washer 
and a man of all work. He married a young woman 
who was a servant in our family. His deport- 
ment won for him general respect and confidence. 
He rapidly increased his property and is now worth 
about six thousand dollars, which for this com- 
munity is a very handsome property. No man's 
word was better than Freeman's. He was honest, 
punctual and reliable. He became an active mem- 
ber of the colored Baptist church and conscient- 
iously discharged his duties as a church member. 
He has a family of three children. 

On the 23rd of June a man named Pleasant 
Ellington, formerly from Kentucky, now of Mis- 
souri, who is, as we understand a Methodist 
preacher (an imposter), appeared in Indianapolis 
and found miscreants base enough to assist him 

218 



BEECHER ON FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW 

in arresting Freeman, upon the claim that he was 
a slave. Freeman claims that he is a freeman and 
shows many papers recognizing that fact. The 
Judge has granted nine weeks for Freeman to pro- 
cure further evidence of his freedom. There are 
some facts that have come to our knowledge which 
it will be edifying to know. When Freeman's 
arrest was known the whole community was 
moved. One hundred men of all parties, and of 
first standing in the place, such as Judge Black- 
ford, Judge Wick, N. B. Palmer, Calvin Fletcher, 
Esq'r. and many others such, signed a bond for 
bail in the sum of $1600. The amount in gold was 
brought in court to be deposited for the preacher 
Ellington, in case Freeman proved to be a slave, 
did not appear, or for his freedom in any event. 
Rev. Mr. Ellington refused to agree to any price 
should he get possession of him, but determined 
to take him to Missouri. 

Under a pretense that he feared a rescue, 
the marshal was about to remove Freeman to 
Madison jail, on the Ohio river, but has consented 
to leave him in the jail in IndianapoHs, on condi- 
tion that Freeman pay three dollars per day for 
a guard to watch over himself. 

We have some good but dull men in New York 
who have denied that Christian men and families 
were subject to separation and sale, under the 

219 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

system of slavery. It is said to represent such 
scenes as Uncle Tom's separation from his family 
and his wife is a slander. Yet here is a preacher 
of the gospel making a pilgrimage of half a thous- 
and miles to find and arrest a member of a Chris- 
tian church, in a free state, and drag him into 
slavery ; he finds him settled down in a home which 
his own industry has secured, with a wife and 
three children, a useful and greatly respected 
citizen. One would think that a man with a 
particle of humanity, even if Freeman were his 
slave, upon seeing such a state of facts would re- 
fuse to break up and desolate a family and 
blight the prospects of a man and fellow Chris- 
tian. But so deeply has this fellow drunk 
of the spirit of patriotism that he determines to 
make mischief. Bonds and securities were offered 
him the most ample, in case Freeman should prove 
his slave. He refused everything. He demanded 
the "man,*' and declared that he would remove him 
to a slave state and to slavery. 

A man that can read such a state of facts and 
not feel his heart rising with indignation against 
this scoundrel clergyman, ought to regard him- 
self as having sinned away his day of grace, and 
as sealed over to reprobation. 

And yet, is this man any worse than the 
laws ? Has he done anything illegal ? This Amer- 

220 



BEECHER ON FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW 

ican people have laws within which men may vio- 
late every sentiment of humanity, smother every 
breath of Christianity, outrage the feeling of a 
whole community, crush an innocent and help- 
less family, reduce a citizen of universal respect 
and proved integrity, to the level of a brute, carry 
him to the shambles, sell him forever away from 
his church, his children, his wife. All this may be 
done without violating the laws of the land — nay, 
by the laws and under the direction of a magis- 
trate. 

And so deadening has been the influence of 
slavery upon the public mind that religious teach- 
ers and religious editors will not find a word to 
say against this utter abomination, and many 
pious words will they utter in favor of this execra- 
ble traffic. 

Meanwhile, that same God who permits the 
existence of tarantulas, scorpions, and other such 
creatures as this Rev. Mr. Ellington. It may serve 
a good purpose, in this easy, timid, shuffling age, 
to exhibit beneath the sun, how utter a villian a 
man may be and yet keep within the pale of the 
law, within the permission of the church, and with- 
in the requirements of the Christian ministry. To 
crush the human heart, to eat a living household, 
to take a family into one's hands and crush it like 
a cluster of grapes, this is respectable, legal, and 

221 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Christian, in the estimation of cotton patriots, 
and patriotic Christians, who regard law as great- 
er than justice, the Union is more important than 
public virtue and practical Christianity. Such 
laws as that which will permit these scenes will 
destroy the conscience and humanity of the com- 
munity; or else be itself destroyed by them. A 
people who have learned to see such sights un- 
moved are not far from the level of the Romans, 
whose amusements were in blood and the death 
of beasts and gladiators. 

As long as smooth prophets ease down the 
public conscience; and obsequious editors count 
themselves worthy to bind up the scandals of sav- 
age laws, whose every step perpetrates as many 
crimes as man can commit against man — so long 
we need not wonder that there are such monsters 
as this Elhngton ruffled out as a minister of the 
gospel, to the shame of every honest man that 
wears the same cloth ; and preaches the same gos- 
pel like a volcano through whose base flames the 
fire of perdition. 

It will not forever be thus. There is an unper- 
verted heart. There is a Judge above corruption. 
There are laws neither framed in deceit nor red- 
mouthed with blood of the innocent. We turn to 
that Great Heart, guardian of the supreme and 
universal law, (beneath which the miserable, pid- 

222 



BEECHER ON FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW 

dling enactments of paltry politicians and mousing 
merchants are as grass, withered leaves beneath 
the cedars of Lebanon) , has not the shame of our 
nakedness appeared long enough ? How long shall 
this land stand before the world like a drunken 
woman loosely exhibiting her hideous charms, 
which none can behold without shame and dis- 
gust. 



223 



CHAPTER XIX 



JOHN AND PETE MUNDAY 

In the dark days of slavery there lived in 
Webster County, Kentucky, a man named Wil- 
liam Munday, who owned several slaves, among 
these were two boys, John and Pete, who longed 
to be free. They talked much about freedom when 
they were alone, and listened eagerly to every tale 
of run-aways escaping from their masters and 
making their way to Canada. They made inquir- 
ies about the particulars whenever they thought 
it prudent to do so. They had settled the question 
in their own minds, and with each other, that as 
soon as a good opportunity offered itself they 
would run away. There was a noted Cumberland 
preacher who lived just across the line in Hender- 
son county, who owned slaves. This preacher often 
came to Gibson county, Indiana to preach; and 
he usually brought along his slave servant. The 
slaves of Munday and those belonging to the 
preacher were related ; and as both masters were 
lenient with their slaves, they often visited each 
other. During these visits the slave of the preach- 
er told John and Pete of his wonderful trips to In- 
diana ; of the great Ohio river ; the city of Evans- 

224 



JOHN AND PETE MUNDAY 

ville and of the many other wonderful things he 
had seen in his travels. They learned from him 
the direction to the land of freedom and of the 
roads that led there. All this information greatly 
excited the Munday boys and they determined to 
make an attempt to gain their freedom, and at once 
began making preparations for their journey. But 
it was quite awhile before an opportunity came. 
However, one did come and it happened in this 
way: 

It was a very bad crop year and Munday had 
failed in his crops. To help over the winter he 
hired John and Pete to a tobacco packing house in 
Henderson. They went to work in the latter part 
of August, 1854. For the boys this was the first 
step toward liberty. They entered the factory as 
carrier boys, helping carry the tobacco to the men 
who packed it in hogsheads. Their lives here were 
as pleasant, as they always had been with their 
master. While working here they became ac- 
quainted with an old gray-headed negro, who was 
known far and near in that part of Kentucky by 
the name of Simon. This old negro soon gained 
the confidence of John and Pete and they told him 
of their great desire to be free. Now Uncle Simon 
was an agent of the Underground Railroad. He 
told them if they would trust him, that he would 
put them on the road that led to freedom. Uncle 

225 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Simon was a slave himself, but as he was so old, 
he said, freedom would do him but little good, but 
if he was younger he would go to Canada, himself. 
Uncle Simon had become acquainted with some 
Underground Railroad people in Evansville and 
had made arrangements to send them as many 
slaves as he could, and these people agreed to help 
all who reached there, to escape. 

John and Pete were willing to make the at- 
tempt to escape. After they had worked about 
two weeks in the factory Uncle Simon told them 
to meet him at a certain place on the river bank, 
about one o'clock at night, and all would be ready 
for the start. The boys kept the appointment 
and found Uncle Simon awaiting them. Getting 
into a skiff Uncle Simon rowed to the Indiana side. 
Here, by previous arangement, a man met them 
and took the two boys in a skiff to Evansville, 
where they were put in a cellar. They were kept 
here for nearly a week, until the search for them 
was over. Their guardian visited them every 
night and left food to last them twenty-four hours. 
One night he told them it was time to be going, 
and guided them through the city and put them 
on the tow path of the Wabash and Erie canal 
and instructed them to follow the path to the end, 
which was in the state of Ohio. He assured them 
that friends along the way would be on the look- 

226 



JOHN AND PETE MUNDAY 

out for them, who would give them further in- 
structions. A haversack of provisions and five 
dollars in silver was given to each of the boys. 
They were instructed to travel only at night and 
never pass anyone. If they should see or hear any- 
one they must step aside and keep in hiding until 
the person or persons were gone. If it became nec- 
essary to enter a town to purchase provisions, they 
must go around it and approach it from the north. 
Bidding their friends good-bye they started on 
their 459 mile jaunt to freedom. That night they 
reached the vicinity of Millersburg, Warrick Co.^ 
where they hid in the woods, remaining all next 
day. When darkness came they were again on 
their journey. Next morning they hid themselves 
near Port Gibson, Gibson County. They knew not 
how far they had traveled, or what direction they 
were going, but knew that by sticking to the tow 
path they could not go wrong. But their supply 
of provisions was running low, but they got some- 
thing eatable from a cornfield but had to eat it 
raw, as they feared to make a fire. They decided 
that the next night they would stop at some town 
and purchase needed supplies. When they reached 
Port Gibson, the lights in the stores and houses 
were burning bright, so they decided to not stop 
there and pressed on. They passed Francisco 
about the middle of the night and went a short 

227 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

distance beyond and went into hiding in the woods. 
Next day about ten o'clock they walked back to 
town and entered a store. Here they inquired the 
prices of a brier scythe, a grubbing hoe and a pair 
of hames. They told the merchant that they had 
taken a job of clearing a piece of land a few miles 
north of that place and were to board themselves. 
They bought a side of bacon, a bag of corn meal, 
a tin bucket, a frying pan and two tin cups, and 
started north on the tow path. Going a little 
ways they hid in the woods until night and then 
resumed their tramp northward. About three 
miles west of Dongola they came to a great bottom 
covered with a heavy growth of timber. Here they 
kindled a fire and cooked their supper of fried 
bacon and corn cakes. They traveled in this man- 
ner for many days and nights. The further they 
advanced northward the bolder they became, un- 
til they began to travel during the day, but always 
avoiding persons or towns. After about three 
weeks, they one day came upon a negro man fish- 
ing in the canal. They stopped and talked with 
him. At last he asked if they were not from 
Evansville, Indiana. They answered that they 
were and that they were run-a-ways. He said 
that he suspected as much and that he had "been 
fishing for them fior several days." This negro 
man, like Uncle Simon, was an agent of the Un- 

228 



JOHN AND PETE MUNDAY 

derground Railroad. He had his freedom papers 
and so did not fear arrest. Run-a-way slaves 
would not be afraid to talk to him as they would 
a white man, so he was used by the anti-slavery 
people to head off the escaping slaves and befriend 
them. He told the boys that men from Evansville 
were waiting for them in town just ahead of them 
and that they must follow the tow path no longer. 
The fisherman rolled up his lines and followed by 
the boys, started off through the country. For 
many days they followed their guide, at last reach- 
ing Toledo, Ohio, where friends were on the look- 
out for them. As the slave hunters from Evans- 
ville had confederates at this city watching for 
run-aways, they were hid in a secure place for 
several days. When it was safe to move them they 
were put in the hold of a large steamer and in a 
day or two were landed in Canada, where they 
were free. 

The war soon came on and after the great 
struggle ended, they returned to the United States 
eager to get back to their old home, hoping to meet 
once more their old mother. They learned that 
she and another son had moved to Indiana. They 
continued their search and found her alive and 
well. It was a re-united family never again to be 
separated by slavery, or to be hounded and tor- 
m.ented by slave drivers or slave hunters, for 
slavery no longer cursed our fair land. (229) 



CHAPTER XX. 



REV. HIRAM HUNTER RELEASING KID- 
NAPPED NEGROES 

In the fall and winter of 1863 I had the mis- 
fortune to be an inmate of Libby prison hospital 
with a wound made by a Minney ball, through my 
hip. There were at that time about one thousand 
Federal officers, from the rank of brigader gen- 
eral down to second lieutenant, in that prison. 
Among the number as a patient in the hospital 
was Col. W. McMackin of the 21st Illinois, the reg- 
iment with which General Grant entered the ser- 
vice. The Colonel, as well as myself, had been 
captured at the battle of Chicamaugua, Georgia. 
As I now recall it he was a Cumberland minister 
and a Christian gentleman at all times doing all 
he could to console the poor unfortunates in that 
hospital, many of them very severely wounded 
and a number died while he was there. I am glad 
to be privileged to bear testimony that the Colonel 
was ever ready at any time, night or day, to aid 
those wounded and sick in their temporal wants 
and to give them the words of consolation which 
are in the precious promises of our Saviour. He 
appeared to have never been strong and the ex- 

230 



REV. HIRAM HUNTER 

posure from that t^rible campaign from Mur- 
freesborough, Tenn., to Chickamaukua, Ga., in 
the rain nearly every day had been so severe that 
he was apparently suffering from that dreadful 
disease, consumption. During the long and weary 
months that he worked so faithfully for the hap- 
less and helpless ones in that house of death he 
never complained of his own suffering. He was 
ever doing good and organized a Bible class for 
the convalescents. In this way I became very well 
acquainted with him. He learned where I lived 
and that the town of Princeton was near my home. 
In talking together he related to me this strange 
story which took place some twenty-five years be- 
fore. 

He said that he had gone to Princeton, In- 
diana, to meet Hiram Hunter and had been there 
for some time doing school work in the old brick 
Seminary which stood on the hill, under Hunter, 
or some other persons whom Hunter had assigned 
to give his lessons in theology. During the time 
he was there he went out with the ministers of the 
different churches in the country surrounding 
Princeton and heard the old ministers preach. At 
one time he attended a camp meeting several miles 
southwest of Princeton. There were many preach- 
ers and thousands of persons in attendance. While 
attending one of these meetings there was a 

231 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

lengthy service at night and while the meeting 
was in progress there was some rain and a flurry 
of wind. After the meeting, Rev. Hiram Hunter, 
who was in attendance, was invited by a gentle- 
man who lived near to go home with him to spend 
the night. The Colonel, through Hunter, was al- 
so invited. They were all on horseback and Mr. 
Knowlton had his wife on the same horse with him. 
They had gone some distance from the church 
when they found the road completely blocked by 
the top of a tree which had fallen into it. They 
all dismounted and crept around through the thick 
brush as best they could to get around the tree 
top. On coming to the road on the other side, they 
found a covered wagon which was stopped by the 
blockade. On coming up to it a man was seen 
standing in the road. Mr. Hunter was in front 
and asked the man how he came there with a 
covered wagon at that time of night. The man 
answered him by saying it was none of his busi- 
ness. Mr. Hunter was a determined man and it 
did not take much of this sort of thing to raise his 
anger. He said: "I spoke to you as a gentleman 
and your answer shows that you are an ill-bred 
cur. I am now satisfied that there is something 
wrong about you and before we go any farther we 
will investigate." At this point another man ap- 
peared, and going around the tree came up and 

232 



REV. HIRAM HUNTER 

demanded to know what the trouble was. Mr. 
Hunter told him there was no trouble but they 
thought there was something wrong and intend- 
ed to know what it was. At this, the man with 
the ax, said that the first man who attempted to 
lay hands on the wagon would lose his life. As 
quick as thought one of the two stalwart sons of 
Mr. Knowlton, who were with the camp-meeting 
party, caught the ax and wrenched it out of the 
hands of the threatening fellow. The other man 
attempted to aid his partner when the senior Mr. 
Knowlton laid him on his back in the road. The 
two boys tied the man they had and their father 
and Mr. Hunter drew the arms of the man who 
was knocked down behind his back and McMac- 
kin tied them hard and fast with his handkerchief. 
The night was cloudy but there was a moon and 
it was not very dark but the timber was so very 
thick on each side of the narrow road that they 
could not see to any advantage. Matches, at that 
time, were not in general use. Mr. Knowlton told 
one of his sons to take his mother home and bring 
back some material to make a torch. The young 
man was soon back with the steel, flint and punk 
and in a little time they had a flaming torch. In 
the wagon they found a negro man and woman 
with their hands tied and they tied to a cross- 
piece under the bottom of the wagon and a rope 

233 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

was tied in each of their mouths. They were soon 
Hberated, but it was some time before they could 
stand or talk. They said they lived in Illinois, a 
few miles west of Vincennes, Indiana, and they 
had been tied ever since the latter part of the night 
before and had been gagged most of the time. 
They further said that they crossed the Wabash 
at Mt. Carmel on the ferry; that they were free 
negroes, and that these two men had come to their 
cabin the night before after they had gone to bed, 
pretending to be lost and asked the privilege of 
feeding their teams near their house, saying they 
would sleep in their wagon, and if the negro wom- 
an would get them a good supper they would give 
her a silver dollar, and she did so. 

Sometime after midnight they knocked at 
the door, saying that they were cold in the wagon 
and asked permission to lie on the floor. The door 
was opened and they caught and tied and put them 
into the wagon. This occurred almost twenty-four 
hours before they were liberated. 

The wagon was turned and the two kidnappers 
were made to walk behind it, guarded by Messrs. 
Hunter and Knowlton. One of the boys drove the 
team and they were soon home. After getting in- 
to the house they held an informal examination. 
The two negroes told the same story that they 
did at the wagon. The man knocked down was 

234 



REV. HIRAM HUNTER 

the first interrogated. He was very insolent and 
said that he would make it dear business to those 
stopping him and meddling with his property; 
the two negroes were his and he had a description 
of them which he showed. He said that they had 
run away from southern Kentucky about two 
years before. The other kidnapper would not say 
anything. The stories of the negroes were be- 
lieved, and it was decided to hold the men until 
morning and take all of them to Princeton, Indi- 
ana where legal proceedings would be brought. 

The first cabin of the family was standing in 
the yard. A pallet was made down on the floor 
and the kidnappers were put on it. There were 
no windows and but one door, which was fastened 
on the outside with a rope. The two boys volun- 
teered to occupy a room not more than ten feet 
away and guard the door. In some manner the 
outlaws untied each other and got out at a low 
wide chimney and made a break for the stable to 
get the horses, but the boys with their guns foiled 
them in this and they made a rush for the woods 
which was near by and escaped. 

That was the last these people ever heard of 
them. The next morning it was decided that Mr. 
Knowlton and a neighbor would take the negroes 
back to their home. The two men were well 

235 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

mounted and armed with long rifles, as everybody 
was in those days. 

When they arrived in the neighborhood in 
which the negroes Hved they found the wagon and 
team had been stolen about three miles north of 
their cabin, and that the negroes had lived in that 
neighborhood more than twenty years. 



2.^6 



CHAPTER XXI 



THE KIDNAPPING OF REUBE AT PRINCE- 
TON, INDIANA. 

In 1817 William Barrett moved to this state 
from Tennessee and settled in what is now south- 
western Colum.bia township, Gibson county, Indi- 
ana. He had formerly lived in the state of South 
Carolina and moved from there to Tennessee in 
1804. 

Some years after they reached Indiana a ne- 
gro man named Reube who had formerly been a 
slave of Mr. Jacob Sanders (but had been freed 
for having saved his master's life) came on from 
South Carolina with a relinquishment paper for 
Mrs. Barrett to sign for her part of her father's 
estate. Reube remained for nearly a year; the 
winter weather was too cold for him and he de- 
termined to go back before another winter set in. 
John W. Barrett, a son of William, at that time a 
large, gawky boy about eighteen years old and six 
feet eight inches tall, went with Reube on many 
fishing and hunting adventures. When the time 
came for Reube to start back John took him over 
to Princeton and led back home, the horse which 
he had ridden. Reube intended to go from there 

237 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

to Evansville with the first passing team that 
went that way. 

The act which gave Reube his freedom was a 
heroic one. There was a maniac in that section of 
South Carohna who at times became very des- 
perate and was kept in confinement in a place the 
authorities had for that purpose. He was very 
sly and cunning, and stepping up back of Mr. 
Sanders pinioned his hands behind him and threw 
him on the ground, and with a large knife at- 
tempted to cut his throat. Reube, being in the 
garden nearby, saw his master's peril and run- 
ning up behind the maniac struck him about the 
ear with the hoe and felled him to the ground. Mr. 
Sanders said: "Reube, from this day on you are 
a free man and I will at once make out your free 
papers." He told him to stay on the place if he 
wanted to for as long a time as suited him and he 
would pay him for all the work he did. The papers 
were made out, and in giving him his freedom a 
full history of the reason was given and they were 
recorded. To make it certain that no one would 
disturb Reube, Mr. Sanders had a record of a full 
history of the case engraved on a gold plate, also 
had a gold chain attached to the gold plate that 
went around his neck so that it was easy at any 
time if the patrols stopped him to show the cer- 
tificate on the plate. Mr. Barrett's family heard 

238 



KIDNAPPING OF REUBE 

nothing of Reube for two or three years. Finally 
Mr. Sanders wrote to his niece, Mrs. Barrett, ask- 
ing her why Reube did not come back. 

In 1832 Col. J. W. Cockrum bought the steam- 
boat "Nile" and intended to run her up the Yazoo 
river and other small rivers to bring the cotton 
out and carry it to New Orleans. John W. Bar- 
rett, a brother-in-law, was made clerk of the boat 
and had charge of the freight. At one landing on 
the Yazoo river there was a large quantity of cot- 
ton to be loaded, and the planters were still deliver- 
ing from their farms. Young Barrett was on the 
deck tallying as the mate and deck hands were 
putting the cargo aboard when a colored man came 
near him and said: ''Mr. Barrett don't you know 
me ? I am Reube who hunted with you in Indiana. 
Don't let on you know me." Barrett did know 
him and was greatly surprised at thus meeting 
him. Finally he got a chance and told Reube to 
roll a bale of cotton behind the cabin stairs. Reube 
told him that his master was on the bank and it 
was not safe for them to be seen talking together. 
The planter whom Reube called his master had a 
large amount of cotton and was watching the 
count of the bales and his slaves were helping to 
load it in order that they might finish before night. 
During the loading Barrett had several chances 
to say a word to Reube. There was a wood yard 

239 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

a few miles below, where the boat would stop to 
take on v/ood. Reube said he would be down there 
when the boat came, which would be after night. 
When the boat rounded to Reube w^as ready to 
load wood as soon as it was measured. Barrett 
watched his chances and took Reube down in the 
hold and secreted him there and looked after him. 
They got to New Orleans, unloaded the cotton and 
took on a lot of government freight for one of the 
military outposts on the upper Arkansas river. 
Reube was still in hiding, no one but the clerk be- 
ing aw^are of his presence on board. 

While they were unloading the government 
freight Barrett went to the commander of the 
fort and told the history of Reube and all about 
his being kidnapped and being sold into slavery 
to a Mississippi planter on the Yazoo river. As 
fortune would have it the commander was a New 
England man and fek indignant at the outrage- 
ous treatment the poor negro had received and as- 
sured Barrett that he would keep him in his em- 
ploy at good wages until he had an opportunity to 
send him back to South Carolina, which he did. 
About a year afterward the Barrett family re- 
ceived a letter from Mr. Sanders telling of Reubens 
arrival home. 

Mr. John W. Barrett told me in 1854, the last 
time he was in Indiana, that after he left Reube 

240 




COL. JAMES W. COCKRUM. 

A Member of the Executive Committee of the Anti-Slavery 
League. 



KIDNAPPING OF REUBB 

at Princeton he had no opportunity to get away 
to Evansville until about the middle of the next 
day. He was making inquiry of some people if 
they knew of any team which was going to Evans- 
ville. Reube was very fond of showing his gold 
certificate of freedom; finally two men told him 
they were going to Evansville that evening but 
they could not get away before the middle of the 
afternoon and made an agreement that he could 
go with them if he would cook for them on the 
road and after they got there. Reube readily 
agreed to this, since they told him that they had 
some thought of going on to Tennessee. 

They finally started and after staying a day 
or so at Evansville (which then was only a small 
place) they started on the Tennessee trip. They 
made it convenient to go through west Tennessee 
and on to Memphis. They told Reube, to whom 
they had been very kind, that in a day or so they 
w^ould go to North Carolina and in doing so would 
pass near his home if he wanted to go with them, 
but the next place they went to was the Yazoo 
river. There they took Reube's gold plate and 
papers from him and sold him to the planter with 
whom Barrett found him. 



241 



CHAPTER XXII 



A BLUFF THAT FAILED TO WORK 

About the year 1851 an old negro man named 
Stephenson, came to see the author's father, who 
was largely interested in farming, to have him 
keep his boys, one fourteen, one twelve and the 
other ten years old, for him until he could make 
arrangements to start for Liberia. This my 
father agreed to do. It was spring time and the 
boys helped with the work, and thus continued 
all through that season. The old man had no 
chance to get away and work was well under way 
for the second season. Old man Stephenson had 
come to this country from South Carolina with 
Dr. Samuel McCullough, about the middle of the 
forties. He was a free man but married a slave 
and bought her freedom. They had lived in the 
same neighborhood for several years until his 
wife died. One evening, just as the work was over 
for the day, and the colored boys were doing up the 
work around the barn, two men rode up to the 
front of the house and called to the author's 
father, who was sitting on the porch, saying they 
wanted to see him. They told him they had a 
description of three colored boys who were born in 

242 



A BLUFF THAT FAILED 

South Carolina who were slaves and called to see 
him about it as they had learned he had three 
colored boys working for him. 

These two fellows no doubt had a confederate 
in the neighborhood who had given them a perfect 
description of the boys. They talked together, my 
father not having the least idea who they were 
and e\4dently they did not know him or they 
would have been the last fellows to come there 
on such a mission. He excused himself to go into 
the house for something. They waited for him 
to return, which he did with his bear gun, ''Old 
Vicksburg," in his hands. 

They commenced to plead with him not to 
have any trouble. He told them that there was 
not the slightest danger of any trouble but he 
wanted them to see what sort of a machine he 
guarded the boys with and said to them : ''Do you 
see that little house?" pointing to a room in our 
yard "The three boys sleep there and if they are 
disturbed I will kill fifteen such worthless vaga- 
bonds as you are before you get them, fugitive 
law or any other law. And I want to say before 
I get mad that you had better go for you may get 
into danger." He cocked the big gun and said: "I 
feel it coming on — go, and go quick." 

They took him at his word and they went in 
a hurry. He waited until they had gone about 

243 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

seventy-five yards away when he turned loose at 
them, intending to shoot just above their heads. 
At the crack of that monster gun they laid down 
on their horses' necks and made as good time as 
did the best mounted F. F. V. when Sheridan's 
cavalry was after them. 

The boys remained with us for nearly three 
years before they got away to Liberia and that 
¥/as the last we ever heard of the men hunting for 
them. 

The next year my father made the race for 
the legislature. One of these fellows who was a 
hotel keeper at Petersburg, Indiana, went into Gib- 
son County to work against him. He told the peo- 
ple that father was a blood-thirsty man and that 
he did not regard the life of a man more than he 
would the life of a bear. It was evident he had 
struck the wrong crowd. They demanded that 
he tell them of one instance where he had shown 
such a disposition. He told them that two friends 
of his had gone to father's house to see about some 
rimaway negroes and that he threatened their 
lives and as they went away shot at them. This 
disgruntled fellow was laughed out of the town- 
ship for his meddling. 



244 



CHAPTER XXIII 



JOSEPH MONTGOMERY LIBERATING TWO 
KIDNAPPED NEGROES. 

Judge Isaac Montgomery owned a farm near 
Princeton at the time he lived on his farm in east- 
ern Gibson county, and he cultivated both farms. 

At one time Harvey and Joseph, and a hand 
working for them named McDeeman had two loads 
of produce, venison, hams, hides and bear bacon 
which they were taking to Robert Stockwell at 
Princeton. Joseph at that time lived on what was 
afterward the Richey farm about one half mile 
west of his father. He was a very large man and 
was known far and near as one of the strongest 
men who ever lived in that section. 

As they were getting within about two miles 
of Princeton and after climbing a hill they stopped 
to let their ox teams rest and heard a loud noise 
as of men in a wrangle. Joseph Montgomery and 
McDeeman left Harvey with the teams and taking 
their guns v/ent to find out what the noise was 
about. When they got to the parties making the 
noise they found two negroes handcuffed together 
and a white man was beating one of the negroes 
with a heavy stick. 



245 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Montgomery, who was as fearless as strong, 
with McDeeman rushed up to the place where the 
trouble was and asked the man with the club what 
in ''hades" he meant by beating the man with 
such a bludgeon. There were two white men and 
one of them became very insulting, telHng Mont- 
gomery they were beating their own property and 
it was none of his business. One of the negroes 
cried out ''Oh, that is Mr. Montgomery ! Don't you 
know me ? I am Pete who kept your camp at the 
bear's den." 

Montgomery did know him. The bully had 
the club drawn back to hit Pete when Montgomery 
leaped like a panther and hit the fellow at the butt 
of the ear and completely knocked him out. At 
this the other kidnapper started to draw a large 
knife when McDeeman who was a full-fledged 
Irishman, raised his gun and said: "On your 
worthless life don't move your hand. If you so 
much as bat your eye I will shoot it out of your 
head." They took the key away from them, freed 
the negroes, put the handcuffs on the kidnappers, 
gave the two negroes the clubs and marched the 
two men up to the wagons and on into Princeton. 
Montgomery tried to have the kidnappers put in 
jail until court convened. The old justice before 
whom they brought the proceedings was thorough- 
ly in sympathy with slavery and he virtually there 

246 



JOSEPH MONTGOMERY RELEASES NEGROES. 

made the same decision that Chief Justice Tanny 
did thirty years afterwards. It was as follows: 

"There is no evidence that the two men kid- 
napped the negroes except the statement made by 
the negroes. The evidence of a negro has no 
force in court which could affect a white man.'' 

They were set at liberty. They were so much 

elated over being freed from the charge that they 

proceeded to fill up with whiskey and hunted up 

Montgomery and started a quarrel with him but 

he gave both of them at the same time such a 

thrashing that they were glad to get away. 



247 



CHAPTER XXIV 



KIDNAPPING ONE OF MAJOR ROBB'S HANDS 

AT HIS MILLS NEAR HAZLETON, 

INDIANA. 

In 1822 a negro named Steve Hardin, who had 
worked with Major Robb about his mill for some 
time, was kidnapped by a Kentuckian named J. 
Teal who was visiting south of Vincennes, and 
carried to New Orleans and sold into slavery. Two 
years afterward a man named Pea who lived west 
of Petersburg, Indiana, went down the river and 
at new Orleans met Steve Hardin with whom he 
was well acquainted. Pea went with the negro to 
a lawyers office and told him the negro's history 
and that he was born in Indiana Territory after 
1787. Suit was brought and the negro was given 
his liberty, the judge holding that those who were 
born in the Northwest Territory after the ordin- 
ance of 1787 were free. 

In 1897 John Warrick, Sr. brought from Ken- 
tucky to Indiana Territory a negress. When the 
state constitution was adopted Warrick sold this 
woman to a Kentucky friend who kidnapped her 
near Owensville, Indiana, and took her to his 
Kentucky home. Parties from the section where 

24S 



KIDNAPPING OF MAJOR ROBB'S HAND 

she was kidnapped instituted proceedings in a 
Kentucky court for her freedom. The court held 
that it could not recognize the theory which held 
one to be a slave and free at the same time and 
further held that the negress was free by being 
taken into Indiana Territory for a residence after 
the ordinance of 1787. 

/ 



249 



CHAPTER XXV 



AN ATTEMPT TO KIDNAP A BARBER AT 
PETERSBURG, INDIANA. 

Dr. J. R. Adams of Petersburg tells this story 
of a barber who came to Petersburg and opened a 
barber shop. One of the human vultures who 
were ever ready to kidnap the poor negroes sent 
off and had a correct description of the barber 
made and sent back to him. He and another con- 
federate at Washington, Indiana, who brought a 
stranger with him who claimed to own the barber 
and who said he was his negro. He had posters 
which gave a perfect description of the barber, 
and in which a reward of two hundred dollars was 
offered for his re-capture, claiming that he had 
run away from Tennessee some three years before. 

These villians were preparing to start for the 
south with the unfortunate barber when Dr. 
Adams brought proceedings to liberate him. The 
doctor through an attorney delayed proceedings 
until he could send a runner to Vincennes and get 
Robert LaPlant who swore that the negro was 
born in a small house in his father's yard in Vin- 
cennes, that the mother and father were in the 
employ of his parents at that time and continued 

250 



KIDNAPPING A BARBER 

to work for his father until the barber was nearly- 
grown. Dr. Adams swore he had known him as a 
free negro for ten years. On this strong evidence 
the young barber was liberated, on account of the 
prejudice of the time, all the white villains who 
tried to do this great wrong were allowed to go 
free. 



251 



CHAPTER XXVI 



TWO FREE NEGROES KIDNAPPED WEST OF 
PRINCETON, INDIANA. 

In 1822 two negro men came to what is now 
Princeton hunting for work. They were hired by 
General Wm. Embree to work on a farm that he 
owned two or three miles west of Princeton. They 
were good hands and worked on the same farm 
for two years, living in a small log cabin on the 
farm doing their own culinary work. One of the 
men could read and write and often borrowed 
books to read from people in Princeton. When the 
work season was over they put in most of their 
time before corn would be ready to gather in hunt- 
ing for game, which was very abundant. 

The summer's work for the second year was 
over and the men had gone hunting. One morning 
late in the summer some one found tacked on the 
cabin door a short note saying they had gone to 
the Ohio river to cut cord wood until the corn 
w^ould do to gather and this was the last time they 
were ever seen on the farm. 

Some years later General Embree was in the 
city of New Orleans and found these two men 
working on the levee, rolling freight. They told 

252 



KIDNAPPING NEAR PRINCETON 

him that the two men whom they had seen sev- 
eral times in Princeton came to their cabin early 
in the evening and handcuffed them and by day- 
light the next morning they were at the Ohio river 
which they crossed on a raft into Kentucky, go- 
ing dov^ to Henderson. After waiting a few days 
a boat came and they were carried to New Orleans 
where they were sold into slavery. 

Mr. Embree went to a lawyer and told his 
story and had proceedings brought to liberate the 
two negroes. The investigation developed that 
they were sold into slavery to James Lockwell by 
two men named Absalom Tower and Thomas 
Slaven and they had been for more than three 
years the property of Lockwell. As no complaint 
had been made during that time the judge re- 
fused to release them. 



253 



CHAPTER XXVII 



JOB TURNER 

After John Bundy went to Canada, Turner 
had no one that he could fully rely on to help him. 
Uncle Simon was good help and reliable, but he 
was so old that he could not do much at any great 
distance from home. He was depended on by his 
master to do the chores around the house and 
barn. This work kept him busy every day until 
late in the evening. Turner kept up his regular 
peddling trips. In this way he became acquaint- 
ed with two negro families. The men were well 
acquainted with the country south for quite a dis- 
tance. They had hinted to Turner several times 
that they would like to go north. Finally they 
told him that many slaves had run away and 
gained their liberties; what hindered them from 
gaining their freedom, and asked him to aid them. 
They Hved too far south to reach the Ohio river 
in one night but declared they could go as far as 
an old vacant lime stone quarry, where there were 
many old lime kilns standing. They felt sure they 
could hide there for one day and when night would 
come they could go on to the place agreed upon, 
where the guides would be awaiting them. This 

254 



JOB TURNER'S WORK 

would be about seven miles from Owensboro, Ky., 
and by the middle of the night they would reach 
the fishermen's shack east of Owensboro. Turner 
assured them that the guides would be at the 
place agreed upon on a Sunday night. Their master 
was away from home and would not return for 
several days. The overseer had been thrown from 
a vicious horse and had one of his arms broken. 
In the two families were eight persons, the two 
men and their wives and four children from ten 
to fourteen years of age. Saturday night came 
and they had provisions for two days prepared. 
As soon as it was dark they were on their way to 
the abandoned limestone quarry. On the second 
night they reached the place where the three 
guides awaited them. They crossed the river and 
reached a point about ten miles north where they 
hid in a large corn field and rested all day. One 
of the guides went on to Mr. Caswell's to inform 
them that early that evening eleven people would 
reach his place for supper. When he reached 
there he found three men there who were hunt- 
ing three run-away slaves (who were hidden in 
our barn cellar). The men seemed to want to 
hang around Mr. Caswell's premises. Mr. Cas- 
well told them he had no knowledge of the three 
slaves that they were hunting. The guide told Mr. 
Caswell that he was hunting work and wanted to 

255 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

know if he needed a hand, or if not if he knew of 
anyone that did. Mr. Caswell told him that his 
farm work was mostly done and that he didn't 
know of anyone wanting help. The three slave 
hunters were not from Kentucky, but lived in the 
surrounding country, one at Boonville, one at 
Pleasantville and one at Lynnville. They were 
suspicious of Mr. Caswell as it was well-known 
that he did not believe slavery was right. Finally 
the guide said that he would go to the neighbor- 
hood west of there, as he knew that there were 
some large farmers living in that neighborhood. 
The slave hunters left soon after the guide de- 
parted. They went a little way on the road to 
Lynnville then went around a field coming into a 
neighborhood road that led toward the weat. They 
did not go far when they caught up with the guide, 
who aimed to return to Mr. Caswell's as soon as 
he thought the slave hunters would be gone. They 
rode up to him and asked his name which he said 
was Stephens. They asked where he lived and he 
answered wherever he wore his hat. They ordered 
him to stop and he obeyed. They then told him 
that the believed he was an abolitionist and that 
he was watching men hunting run-away negroes, 
and that they intended to search him and learn 
what he was up to. Stephens stepped to the side 
of the road and unslung a Sharp's rifle and pointed 

256 




ROBERT P. HAWTHORNE. 
A Worker for the Anti-Slavery League. 



JOB TURNER'S WORK 

it at the nearest man's head and told him to get 
on his horse, and if they made any further attempt 
to molest him he would kill all three of them. He 
then ordered them to return the way they came 
and that he would follow them and if they did 
not get out of this section of country, he would 
give them a lesson they would long remember. 

That the reader may understand how the 
Sharp's rifle was carried, so that it would not be 
seen, I will explain. There was a leather strap 
that had a snap at each end. This strap went 
around the left side of the neck and the two ends 
came together under the right arm where they 
were snapped to a staple on the gun stock. This 
brought the butt of the gun under the right arm 
and it hung down two feet and eleven inches, (I 
measured the gun Mr. Hansen gave me, this morn- 
ing.) The gun was hid by the coat. When it was 
wanted for use, the left hand loosened the snaps 
and the weapon was in hand ready for use. 

The guide waited about an hour and returned 
to Mr. Caswell whom he found near his barn. He 
related his experience with the negro hunters and 
Mr. Caswell was glad that the bullies were de- 
feated. But he was uneasy for fear that they 
might have seen the guide return to his house. 
After eating his breakfast Stephens rested until 
dark. Mr. Caswell was uneasy and sent one of 

257 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

his boys to see Mr. Hill, with a note explaining the 
situation. Hill sent back word that he would go 
to Lynnville and be at CaswelFs by dark. Nothing 
further happened during the day. As soon as it 
was dark the guide went back to meet the other 
two guards and the refugees. Mr. Hill arrived 
at Mr. Caswell's a short time after dark and re- 
lated a wonderful story. He said the slave hunt- 
ers reached Lynnville and told that they had been 
held up by a highwayman; that they wanted to 
be friendly with him, asking him his name and 
where his home was, when he drew a breech-load- 
ing gun and ordered them to get on their horses 
and be going. He threatened to follow them and 
kill them if they did not get out of that section of 
the country. Guards had been placed on two of 
the roads to give warning if the desperado should 
come to town. The three slave hunters left town 
about two o'clock for Pleasantville. 

It was an hour after dark when the guards and 
fugitives reached Mr. CaswelFs barn, where sup- 
per was served in abundance, in the dark. When 
supper was finished Mr. Hill took charge of them, 
going by way of his home for a team and wagon. 
About an hour before daybreak the fugitives were 
safely hid in our barn cellar, where three men had 
been hiding for several days. 

Mr. Hansen came to our home from Evans- 

258 



JOB TURNER'S WORK 

ville that day. When told of the experiences of 
Stephens with the three slave hunters, he said 
Stephens would fight, but he didn't want him to 
hunt up scraps. Stephens found out what all 
who were in this anti-slavery movement learned, 
that these bullying slave hunters when cornered 
were a lot of cowards, and were only dangerous, 
and that with their tongues, when three or four 
of them should meet with some quiet inoffensive 
man whom they thought was anti-slavery in senti- 
ment. Men engaged in such a despicable calling 
as kidnapping free negroes and selling them into 
slavery, or running down a poor fugitive slave, 
trying to gain his freedom, could be nothing but a 
coward. No honorable, brave man would do it. 
Slavery was sanctioned by law, yet it was the 
crowning shame that befouled our statutes. 

A message was sent to Dr. Posey that we 
would be at his place that night, or at the river, 
whichever he thought best. During that day Mr. 
Hansen was at our house. Dr. Posey wrote my 
father by the returning messenger that only a lit- 
tle while before the messenger reached him, Mr. 
Robert Hawthorn was in his office and told him 
that there were eight or ten tough men who had 
drifted to this part of Indiana, by following up 
the Wabash and Erie canal. Three of them were 
working at his mill, three or four staying around 

259 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

canal locks at Hosmer and the rest of them about 
Petersburg, putting in their time at Jack Kin- 
man's gambling house. He advised that great 
caution be exercised or the anti-slavery people 
might get into trouble. 

These toughs claimed that several of their 
men were badly treated by a lot of armed men who 
were in a wagon. Their men were doing nothing, 
they claimed, only stopped the wagon just for fun 
and told the people in the wagon that they had a 
right to examine every wagon that passed over 
that road. To their surprise four or five men, 
armed, jumped out of the wagon and chased their 
men into the woods. They claim for that bad 
treatment they intend to have revenge. They 
-assert that they have seen the same wagon pass 
many times before and the next time it passes 
they intend to capture it. He said that if we sent 
the negroes that night it would be well to have a 
strong guard with them. That the young fellow 
working for Mr. Hawthorn and their mates, might 
try to capture them. The doctor said that he 
thought that it would be safe to send the fugitives 
to his coal bank. John Stucky would be on the 
lookout for them. 

My father gave Dr. Posey's letter to Mr. Han- 
sen, who after reading it, said that he thought it 
would be best to send the negroes forward under 

260 



JOB TURNER'S WORK 

a strong guard. He thought that the threaten- 
ing fellows that Dr. Posey told about would 
have no knowledge of our coming, and 
that all these bravado fellows needed was 
a good lesson, one that would teach them 
that when they fool with fire they are 
liable to get burned. Hansen further said that 
one of his spys was at Boonville and he intended 
to send him on to Lawrenceburg, but he would 
delay it for awhile and order him to Mr. Haw- 
thorn's sawmill, and have him get acquainted with 
the men referred to in Dr. Posey's letter. He 
closed by saying : "This spy is a boat maker from 
the state of Massachusetts. I am needing some 
boats for the young fishermen at Evansville. This 
spy can come into this section and become ac- 
quainted with the anti-slavery people, who are 
working to help the slaves gain their freedom. He 
will then go to Mr. Hawthorn's and select some 
lumber and make three skiffs. At Mr. Hawthorn's 
he will be in favor of slavery. In this way he 
will get into the confidence of the men working at 
the mill, and of their confederates. Through this 
spy it will be easy to find out if the men who are 
making these threats are really vicious, or a lot 
of smart Alecks, who are only dangerous in their 
own imaginations. The anti-slavery people do not 
want to cause anyone trouble that do not deserve 

261 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

it, but if they get in the way and attempt to block 
our work, they may expect to be paid in their own 
coin." 

We got everything ready to take the negroes 
to Dr. Posey's coal bank. It was decided that we 
would make the trip on foot. Two of the guards, 
Mr. Hill, myself and two young men working on 
the farm for my father, were to go. In this way 
we could go around places where we were likely 
to be seen on the main road. By the time it was 
dark we were on the way, going on by-roads when 
we could. Everything went well until we crossed 
Dongola bridge. Soon after we got out of the 
Patoka bottoms, the road ran through a thick 
woods. It was a very dark night. The guard in 
front said he heard several horses coming and the 
voices of men talking. We got out of the road a 
little v/ay and soon the horsemen went by. From 
their talk we thought they were going to picket 
the Dongola bridge. 

When we were about two miles from Peters- 
burg we came near a large field that was lit up 
with many lanterns and many burning chunk 
piles. There was a large drove of cattle in the 
field. I never saw such a sight before or since. 
There would be ten or twelve of them at the same 
time running, pitching and bellowing. Some would 
fall down and roll on the ground. Mr. Hill told 

263 



JOB TURNER'S WORK 

US that the cattle had been fed in a field where 
hogs had been feeding on corn that had been cut 
up when the stalks were green. The hogs would 
partly chew the stalk and leave it. The cattle 
would eat the splintered stalks, and it was these 
hard glazed pieces that had lacerated their in- 
testines, and they were raving with the pain and 
would die. 

We reached Petersburg and met John Stucky, 
who was looking for us. We went to the coal 
bank and Stuckey hid the negroes safely. He said 
on the next night they would forward the refu- 
gees to northern Davies county. 

We returned home with nothing happening 
worthy of mention. The cattle were still show- 
ing signs of distress but we saw no one around 
the fires. We crossed the Patoka river on the 
canal aqueduct as we felt pretty sure that the 
bridge was being watched. When we got a little 
south of Dongola Tom Midcalf and one of the 
guards asked Mr. Hill to let them 'go back and find 
the horses of the bridge watchers and turn them 
loose. Mr. Hill agreed to the proposition provided 
they would not hurt the horses, only to turn them 
loose and unbuckle their girths so that they would 
lose their saddles. The others of the party would 
rest and wait half an hour for their return. They 
soon got back and said that they had done as Mr. 

263 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Hill told them to do, but Midcalf told me confi- 
dentially before we reached home that the horses 
would have to carry a brush with them when fly 
time should come. 



264 



CHAPTER XVIII 



JOHN DAVENPORT 

Mr. Hansen sent one of his spies from Boon- 
ville, Indiana, and he was with the anti-slavery 
people here and Dongola, for three days, when he 
went to Mr. Hawthorn with a letter of introduc- 
tion from my father. John Davenport was his 
name. Mr. Hawthorn found him a place to board. 
Selecting some good lumber Davenport went to 
work making skiffs. He soon got acquainted with 
the men working for Mr. Hawthorn. Three of 
these he found to be intensely proslavery, being 
very loud in declaring what they would do, if they 
got a chance, to capture run-away negroes. And 
they declared that if opportunity offered they 
would kidnap any negro and sell him into slavery. 
It was their declared belief that all negroes should 
be slaves and that free negroes should not be 
permitted to live among white people. 

Davenport was a good fellow with these men, 
and they had a number of friends whom they 
wanted Davenport to meet, so they arranged for 
a meeting to be held at a vacant house, a few 
nights ahead. At the appointed time they were 
all there and all the strangers were introduced to 

2f>5 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Davenport. It was suggested that it would be a 
good thing to hold a meeting each week and call 
it a Literary Club. The by-laws provided that the 
membership should be restricted to not more than 
twelve in number and that all the meetings should 
be secret. (For fear that they might get some 
members in the club that were anti-slavery in 
principle, Davenport had Hawthorn examine the 
list of names, which he found to be pro-slavery. 
Everyone of them had been on hunts, trying to 
capture run-away slaves). 

Davenport had a nest of three skiffs, the first, 
a very large one, the second a medium sized one 
and the third smaller, so they all fit in a nest, re- 
quiring the room of only one skiff. A team and 
wagon transported the skiffs to Evansville. Daven- 
port went with the boats. On his return he at- 
tended the meeting of the club and told the mem- 
bers that he had seen a camp of woodchoppers, of 
twelve or fifteen men, all free negro men. They 
told him that they would have their present con- 
tract done in six or eight days, and that he had 
asked them if they would like to have a contract 
to chop one thousand cords of wood at sixty-five 
cents a cord. They said that they would be glad 
to have the contract and would be ready to com- 
mence work in one week's time. He said that he 
did not close the contract, as he did not feel like 

S66 



JOHN DAVENPORT'S WORK. 

making such a large deal without the consent of 
all the members. A motion was made by one of 
the members and adopted, authorizing Davenport 
to go and see the woodchoppers and close up the 
contract with them, and have them move up to a 
large double log building that stood near the canal 
about two and a half miles east of where the 
aqueduct crossed the Patoka river. 

A committee of three was appointed to have 
the old log boarding house fixed up for the new- 
comers. Davenport asked if all the members were 
present and being assured that they were, he ad- 
dressed them as follows : "Gentlemen, you have se- 
lected me to make an arrangement with fifteen 
free negro woodchoppers to place themselves in 
our power so that we can kidnap them and sell 
them into slavery. This is in direct opposition to 
the laws of the United States. If we should be 
caught we would have trouble to save our liberties. 
Aside from this we are planning to deprive fifteen 
men, who are free born, of their liberties for life. 
It will be well that you think this matter over care- 
fully, then if you want to go ahead I am with you." 

After free discussion for a while they re- 
solved unamimously that Davenport should go 
and hire the woodchoppers. 

At the next meeting of the club Davenport 
reported that he had closed the contract with the 

267 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

woodchoppers and that they would be at the old 
log boarding house Friday evening of that same 
week and he added, ''They have three good teams 
and wagons that we can use in taking the negroes 
south." 

There was a controversy about what they 
would do with the negroes when captured. 
It was finally settled that they would sell them to 
a negro trader who lived near Owensboro, Ky. 
Davenport said this man bought all negroes of- 
fered him, but only paid two-thirds of the value of 
kidnapped negroes. This was decided to be the 
best thing that they could do. The club con- 
cluded that it would send Davenport to see the 
slave trader and make final arrangements with 
him. There would be plenty of time for this be- 
fore the woodchoppers would arrive. 

The next meeting of the club was on Thurs- 
day night. Davenport was there and reported 
that he had seen the slave merchant and he had 
agreed to receive the negroes on the north side 
of the Ohio river, as he had a strongly built flat 
boat there that he could load them in and keep 
them until he had acquired a sufficient number, 
then he would take them to the cotton country. 
But he would not agree to pay more than eight 
hundred dollars for any kidnapped negro. 

While Davenport was pretending to be away 

268 



JOHN DAVENPORT'S WORK. 

on business for his club, he was with others, mak- 
ing arrangements to complete the trap that was 
being set to catch the men who were so ready to 
kidnap free negroes and sell them into slavery. 
Isham Booker, a mulatto, was sent to the Cherry 
Grove, west of Princeton, Indiana, and secured 
the help of the four negroes who had helped kid- 
nap the kidnappers, described in a former chapter. 
Mr. Hansen sent two of his guards who had come 
to my father's with four fugitives. George Hill 
was selected as leader, in charge of the men. Wes- 
ley Simpson, Hiram Knight, Thomas Hart, 
Obadiah Naley, myself and five negro men, with 
the two guards, composed the party representing 
the supposed party of woodchoppers. 

The woodchoppers' wagons arrived at the va- 
cant boarding house a little after dark. The horses 
were hitched to the wagon beds and fed. The 
woodchoppers had prepared a luncheon before 
starting, sufficient to meet their needs for the day. 
After satisfying their hunger they entered the 
house and snuffed out the candle lights. 

It was understood with Davenport that he 
would lead his club in at the south door and line 
them up against the south wall. The woodchop- 
pers would be lying on the north side of the room 
asleep, as they would be very tired from so long a 
journey. Soon the club men were heard approach- 

269 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

ing the house. Quietly, they slipped into the room. 
It was very dark and Davenport lighted a candle 
when, to their surprise, there stood before them 
all around the room armed men! Some of these 
hard Sharps rifles presented at the club men and 
others had axes drawn ready to strike them down. 
Other candles were Hghted. Mr. Hill ordered the 
would-be kidnappers to hold up their hands and 
then ordered two of the negroes to disarm them. 
He then demanded of them to explain their con- 
duct. Davenport replied that they were a literary 
club and held their meetings in that room. Mr. 
Hill asked Davenport why he had hired the wood- 
choppers when he had no timber to cut into wood ? 
The answers were unsatisfactory. The spokes- 
asserted that it was a scheme to get the wood- 
choppers in his power so that he and his con- 
federates could kidnap them and sell them into 
slavery. Each man was asked, individually, what 
he came there for but not one, excepting Daven- 
port, would utter a word. There was no doubt but 
all the clubmen (excepting Davenport) believed 
their captors were negro woodchoppers, for all 
were blacked up and thoroughly disguised. 

The leader, Mr. Hill, made a little speech that 
must have added to their alarm: ''When we got 
here we didn't dream that a trap was set to catch 
us, until an old gray-headed man came out of this 

270 



JOHN DAVENPORT'S WORK. 

house and told us to be on our guard, that some 
young men aimed to capture us and sell us into 
slavery. We are fully convinced by your actions 
that he told us the truth. If justice was meted 
out to you, we would kill everyone of you." 

At this point Davenport defied them to do 
their worst, that he did not fear a thousand ne- 
groes, that they all should be slaves. He became 
so boisterous that our leader ordered him taken 
out of the house and if he made any attempt to 
escape to kill him. He was still defiant and started 
to run when we could hear heavy blows as if he 
was being beaten to death. Soon one of the men 
who had charge of Davenport returned and told 
our leader that they had killed their prisoner and 
asked what should be done with the body. He was 
told to throw it into the canal, (which was full 
of water and only a short distance away). Our 
leader then told the remaining members of the 
club, that men who would volunteer willingly to 
kidnap men who were freeborn, and plan to tear 
them away from their wives and children, to sell 
them into slavery for life, deserved death. But 
they woHld not kill the remainder of them, only 
put a mark on each of them that would stay with 
them as long as they lived. Two strong men held 
each victim and another with a sharp knife cut 
the lobe off of the left ear. By the time each of 

271 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

the eleven men had received his mark they were a 
bloody looking sight. They were led outside the 
house and told to go. Our band harnessed horses 
to the wagons and we were soon on our way to our 
homes. We had not gone far when Davenport 
joined us. 

In the fall of 1864 I was in command of the 
Post Military Prison at Nashville, Tennessee. One 
day one of the prison guards was badly hurt try- 
ing to arrest a deserter, and was sent to the hos- 
pital. Next morning I went to the hospital to see 
the injured guard. While passing through the hos- 
pital yard I saw a man sawing wood with a buck- 
saw. Looking closely I recognized him at Robert 
Hawthorn of Petersburg, Indiana. I asked him 
what this meant. He told me the following story: 
'Thomas Hart and I were on our way to join the 
42nd Indiana regiment and owing to some minor 
ailments we were sent to this hospital for treat- 
ment. Because I didn't understand the art of mak- 
ing up beds, a little red headed rooster they call 
a hospital steward, put me on double duty." I 
asked him if he and Hart were well enough to leave 
the hospital and he answered that they were. I 
then told him to go to his ward and get his bag- 
gage and have Hart get his and both come down 
to the office. I went into the office and found Dr. 
Thurston, a regular army surgeon, and told him 

272 




JOHN DAVENPORT. 
A spy for the Anti-Slavery League. 



JOHN DAVENPORT'S WORK. 

about the hospital army steward having Hawthorn 
on double duty and asked that I be allowed to re- 
ceipt for the two soldiers, that I had good rooms 
and bedding for them near my office where I could 
keep them until I had an opportunity to send them 
to the regiment. The doctor granted my request 
and when the two soldiers came I introduced them 
to the doctor, who asked Hawthorn why the hos- 
pital steward had put him on double duty. Haw- 
thorn repeated the story he had told to me. The 
doctor at once sent for the hospital steward. As 
soon as I saw him I was sure that I had seen him 
before. His hair was parted so that a long lock 
completely covered his left ear. The doctor heard 
his statement of his reasons for punishing Haw- 
thorn, and then told him he had done a mean thing. 
That hereafter when any punishment was to be in- 
flicted, that he must report the matter to the 
Doctor, who would decide what punishment should 
be inflicted. After Hawthorn and Hart were gone 
I told Dr. Thurston that I was sure I knew the hos- 
pital steward and believed that he knew Hawthorn 
and for that reason was punishing him. I then 
told the doctor what I had learned about the kid- 
nappers visit to the old boarding house and how 
it terminated. The doctor said he had several calls 
at other hospitals to make that morning and that 
in the afternoon he would inspect the post military 

273 



THE UNDBRanOUND RAILROAD 

prison and would have the hospital steward with 
him, and would manage some way to examine his 
left ear. 

In the afternoon Dr. Thurston came to my 
office and told me that the hospital steward showed 
him his left ear and told him the following story : 
"There was a literary club that used an old aban- 
doned house to hold their meetings in. There were 
twelve or fifteen free negro men who had a con- 
tract to do some work in that section, that took 
possession of our club room to live in while doing 
the work. One evening we went to hold a club 
meeting and found all these negroes there. They 
became greatly excited and said we had come there 
to kidnap them. They surrounded us and penned 
us in the room and pretended to hold a trial over 
us. Our leader became defiant and said many in- 
sulting things to them, for which they took him 
out and killed him. Then they decided that we 
should be marked by having the lobe of the left 
ear cut off, which was done." 

I asked the doctor to have the hospital stew- 
ard come to the office as I wanted to talk to him in 
his presence. I told them that at the time of the 
planned raid on the woodchoppers that an old man 
living as a hermit in the old boarding house had 
put the woodchoppers wise when they came there. 
That the hermit pretended to go away but as soon 

374 



JOHN DAVENPORT'S WORK. 

as the lights were extinguished he slipped back 
and through a hole made in the chinking between 
the logs of the house, saw everything that trans- 
pired within after the candles were lighted until 
the club men were released. I told the steward 
that what was said here would not be repeated 
and asked him where the club men went on the 
night after they were released, and how it was 
that they disappeared so completely that no one 
in that section knew anything about them after 
that night. I remarked that Mr. Hawthorn had 
told me several years ago that he had three young 
men working for him at his mill. They worked 
till six o'clock one evening, leaving the mill 
for their boarding house and he never saw or 
heard of them afterward. The things they left at 
their boarding house were never called for. 

The steward said that as soon as they were 
released they went to the old house where the 
club held their meetings and one of their number 
went after Dr. B. F. Adams, who lived near. The 
doctor soon came with lint and bandages, also 
remedies to stop the bleeding of the wounds, and 
soon fixed them up in good shape. ''We had a time 
getting the blood off our clothes," said the stew- 
ard, "the doctor assured us that he would not say 
a word about his night's work. We paid him 
twenty-two dollars for treating the eleven men. 

275 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

We had the doctor go to find out if any boats were 
due that night on the canal. He soon returned 
and told us that a passenger boat would go north 
at 2 o'clock a. m. and that a freight boat, then in 
the locks would go south some time in the after 
part of the night. Eight of the men went on the 
boat going north and three of us went on the boat 
south to Evansville. After I separated from the 
two men that went to Evansville with me, I have 
never seen or heard of any of the eleven men. Mr. 
Hawthorn and you are the only persons from that 
part of the country that I have seen since that 
awful night." 



276 



CHAPTER XXIX 



INTERESTING LETTERS. 

The thirteen letters that follow were secured 
from prominent politicians and military men sev- 
eral years ago, to be used in a work that the 
Author contemplated publishing. They fit so apt- 
ly into this work that they are submitted to the 
readers of this volume. 



Senator Cullom of Illinois 

Oakland City, Indiana, 

January 17, 1886. 
Hon. Shelby M. Cullom, 

Washington, D. C. 
My Dear Senator: 

I feel that you will pardon me for writing you 
on this subject. I feel that I have known you all 
my life as we have lived but a little over a hundred 
miles apart for so many years. I am collecting 
letters from many parts of the United States from 
prominent men of different political faiths. I feel 
free to ask you in your own way to answer the 
two questions that you will find below on this 
sheet. 

Question : Which added the most to the over- 

277 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

throw of slavery Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" or Senator Mason's fugitive 
slave law ©f 1850? 

Very respectfully yours, 

W. M. Cockrum. 



The United States Senate, 

Washington, D. C, 

March 12, 1886. 
Hon. W. M. Cockrum, 

Oakland City, Indiana. 
My Dear Mr. Cockrum : 

Your letter with the two questions you asked 
me has lain on my desk for some time. I have 
been very busy. I hardly feel competent to give 
you a comprehensive answer to either of the ques- 
tions. There is. but little doubt that they were 
strong factors in bringing about the destruction 
of slavery. I well remember the first time I saw 
Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin." I was in 
southern Illinois not far from Cairo. A lawyer 
with whom I had business handed me a copy of 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" and said that this book will 
divide the South from the North. This Lawyer 
was a hot-headed pro-slavery man as many others 
were in that section at that time. I laughed 
at him and asked him how such a book could have 
such wonderful power as he seemed to think it had. 

278 



THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

He said if the charges against the South for the 
way the slaves were treated were true, it would 
damn any people upholding such conduct and if 
they were not true (and he believed they were 
false) it would raise such a feeling of indignation 
and hatred in the South, that they would pull apart 
and finally divide the country. This lawyer when 
the war came on went back to his native state, 
Tennessee, and assisted in raising a regiment and 
went into the army for the South and was killed 
at the battle of Stone River. 

The fugitive slave law of 1850 was without a 
doubt unconstitutional. Many of its provisions 
were aimed to offend the abolitionists. If it had 
done no more harm than that, it would not have 
been so bad, but there were many clauses in that 
law that were so favorable to the South that free- 
booters both north and south took advantage of 
it and kidnapped free negroes and sold them into 
slavery in the South. In the state of Illinois 
bordering on the Ohio river nearly all the free 
negroes were kidnapped and sold into slavery in 
the lower cotton country of the South. 

Very truly yours, 

Shelby M. Cullum. 



279 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Senator Voorhees 

Oakland City, Indiana, 

October 20, 1874. 
Honorable D. W. Voorhees, 

Terre Haute, Indiana. 
Dear Senator: 

I feel that you will not consider me rude in 
writing you as I have. I am gathering letters 
from prominent men of different political opinions 
in many sections of the United States. I feel free 
to write you. I have a very vivid recollection of 
getting a thorough wetting listening to your fine 
oratory at Princeton, Ind., a few years ago. I want 
to ask you in your own way to answer the two 
questions below on this sheet. 

Question : Which added the most to the over- 
throw of slavery — Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's 
''Uncle Tom's Cabin" or Senator Mason's fugitive 
slave law of 1850 ? 

Very truly yours, 

W. M. Cockrum. 



Terre Haute, Indiana, 

May 23, 1875. 
Col. W. M. Cockrum, 

Oakland City, Ind. 
My Dear Mr. Cockrum: 

Your letter with the questions have been re- 

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THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

ceived. The effect that the two questions pro- 
duced in this country was wonderful. Mrs. Stowe 
had not the least idea what a dreadful row her 
book would cause. It was received in the South 
as a gauntlet thrown down by the abolitionists 
and raised a tremendous excitement in every part 
of the South that did not cool down until after 
the war was over. Senator Mason's fugitive slave 
law of 1850 was not intended to be used by mean 
thieving men to kidnap free negroes and sell 
them into slavery. There is but little doubt that 
the southern members put everything into that 
unfortunate law to hurt the abolitionists that they 
could. 

The two questions that you have asked, no 
doubt were some of the leading causes for the 
overthrow of slavery. 

Very truly, 
D. W. Voorhees. 



Senator Morton, of Indiana 

Oakland City, Indiana, 

Jan. 22, 1875. 
Senator Oliver P. Morton, 

Washington, D. C. 
Dear Senator: 

I am gathering letters from many prominant 
men of this country both North and South — men 

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who are of different political faith. Knowing the 
distinguished abilities that you have shown in the 
State and National affairs, I would like to have 
you write as you feel about the two questions be- 
low on this sheet. I have the honor of having four 
of your commissions sent me during the four years 
of war. The question: Which added the most to 
the overthrow of slavery — Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle 
Tom's Cabin" or Senator Mason's fugitive slave 
law of 1850? 

Very respectfully yours, 

W. M. Cockrum. 



Washington, D. C, 

Feb. 15, 1875. 

Col. W. M. Cockrum, 

Oakland City, Ind. 
My Dear Colonel: 

Your father and I are real friends. He was 
a true old time whig in politics. I first met him 
when he was in the Legislature of 1852. From 
that acquaintance we have been life long friends. 
I remember five or six years ago that you were 
with your Father at Petersburg attending one of 
my political meetings. I have recently sent him 

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THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

several public documents. Please convey to him 
my best wishes for his health and happiness. In 
answering the two questions I will have to be 
governed by the effect that they produced on the 
people of the North and South. Mrs. Stowe's 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" was the first bodily blow that 
the slave owners got. It was a novel of the very 
best type, yet it was a mighty true one and could 
not be successfully answered. The truths it told 
about the way the slaves were treated was very 
damaging to the slave owners and made them 
furiously mad. They never attempted to answer 
the charges, but they took their revenge by abus- 
ing the people of the North. Their newspapers 
made most hideous caricatures about the Anti- 
Slavery people of the North showing negro equali- 
ty as they expressed it by picturing a big black 
negro v/ith a white wife. In my opinion ''Uncle 
Tom's Cabin" had much to do with causing the 
South to attempt secession. Senator Mason's 
fugitive slave law was a very unfair law, and no 
doubt it was unconstitutional, if it had been test- 
ed. It added hundreds of thousands of indifferent 
people to the Anti-Slavery ranks and no doubt 
was a real factor in the destruction of slavery. 

Very truly yours, 

Oliver P. Morton. 



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Senator Roger Q. Mills, of Texas. 

Oakland City, Indiana, 

October 25, 1895. 
Senator Roger Q. Mills, 

Corsicana, Texas. 
My Dear Senator: 

There ought to be a good feeling of comrade- 
ship between us. I was on the great battlefield 
of Chickamauga where you did such clean cut 
fighting with your brigade after General Deshler 
was killed. By your same brigade I received a 
wound through my hip that has made me lame for 
life, and from that field I was carried to Libby 
Prison. I am not to be understood as complain- 
ing, but as that Great Park at Chickamauga is 
made to honor American Heroism, confederate and 
federal alike, I felt that I could claim you as a 
comrade. I want to ask you at your leisure to 
answer me as you feel, two questions that are be- 
low stated on this paper. 

Very truly yours, 

W. M. Cockrum. 

Question : Which added the most to the over- 
throw of slavery Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe^s 
*'Uncie Tom's Cabin" or Senator Mason's fugitive 
slave law of 1850? 



284 



THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

Senate Chamber Washington, D. C. 

Dec. 20, 1895. 
Colonel W. M. Cockrum, 

Oakland City, Indiana. 
My Dear Col. Cockrum : 

Your letter of Oct., 25, 1895, is at hand con- 
taining your request for comradeship, also the two 
questions that you want me to answer. I believe 
in the brotherhood of man and think that any dif- 
ferences we may have had in the sixties should 
all be lost sight of, and as a great United Nation 
should go forward hand in hand to the great 
destiny that belongs to this great country. 

I am sorry that my brigade wounded you, 
but I am real glad that you survived that wound 
and that you are so well as to be able to be a com- 
missioner> on that same battlefield where the 
heroism of the American Soldier is being so fully 
carried out. I feel that everything should be done 
to set aside all difference that may have been and 
let us be a united people. The time may come 
when it will be necessary for us all to pull to- 
gether as one man in defence of our homes. No 
doubt you and I will be out of it before that time 
comes. The Question : Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin" was a very readable book and would have 
been considered only a spicy novel had not so many 
hot heads took exception to it and raised such a 

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furore over the country. I don't know how much 
it influenced the war party to bring on the war. 
The part of Texas that was much interested in 
slavery was but a small portion; and outside of 
the portion bordering on the State of Louisana, 
slavery never was profitable. 

Senator Mason was governed by the leading 
hot heads in Congress when he got the fugitive 
slave law of 1850 put on the statute book. That 
law no doubt was very galling to the North and 
turned hundreds of thousands of men who were 
indifferent about slavery to become open enemies 
of the South. Colonel, I hope sometime to meet 
you and we will talk the stirring times of the six- 
ties over. 

Very kindly yours, 

Roger Q. Mills. 



General A. P. Stewart 

Oakland City, Indiana, 

July 12, 1895. 
General A. P. Stewart, 
Park Hotel, 

Chickamauga, Georgia. 
Dear General Stewart: 

The questions I am asking you about are on 
the same lines that we have talked about on sev- 
eral occasions when I was at the Park Hotel. I 

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THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

feel that you will not think me rude by asking 
you in your own way to answer the two questions 
that you will find lower down on this same sheet. 
I have submitted these questions to a large num- 
ber of leading citizens of our country. Politicians, 
Theologians and many who held high positions in 
the Federal and Confederate Armies. I am Gen- 
eral, 

Your obedient servant, 

W. M. Cockrum. 
Question : Which added the most to the over- 
throw of slavery Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's 
''Uncle Tom's Cabin" or Senator Mason's fugitive 
slave law of 1850? 



Park Hotel, Chickamauga, Georgia, 

October, 7, 1895. 
Col. W. M. Cockrum, 

Oakland City, Indiana. 
My Dear Colonel: 

I do remember many conversations that 
we had on various causes for the war. I don't 
think that I am competent to give an answer on 
the two questions that would be received as sat- 
isfactory by the reading public. 

I read Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" 

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soon after it came out. I thought it was a very- 
readable book. The many charges of the earlier 
workings of slavery were not borne out by my 
knowledge of slavery in the sections of the south 
where I was the best acquainted, but that was not 
in the cotton and sugar districts. It may have 
been different there. 

The fugitive slave law of 1850 was a needed 
law for the owners of slaves, to keep those who 
were opposed to slavery from running the slaves 
away. The penalty attached to that law was all 
the hope the slave holders had of ever recaptur- 
ing their fugitive slaves. 

There were many designing men who took 
advantage and kidnapped free negroes and sold 
them into slavery. I saw in a newspaper some 
time ago a statement that there were five north- 
ern men engaged in the kidnapping business to 
where there was one from the south. 

What part each one of the questions bore to 
the destruction of slavery would be hard to esti- 
mate, but without a doubt they both added their 
full share in bringing about the overthrow of 
slavery. 

Sincerely yours, 

A. P. Stewart. 

(General Stewart commanded a confederate 
division in the army of the Tennessee for two 

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THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

years and in the Atlanta campaign. Bishop 
Polk's head was shot off by a cannon ball and 
General Stewart was put in command of that 
corps and had charge of it until the close of the 
war. — Author.) 



General Wm. Brimage Bates, of Tennessee 

Oakland City, Indiana, 

Sept. 12, 1896. 
General Wm. B. Bates, 

Nashville, Tenn. 
My Dear General: 

You no doubt remember that I served on a 
committee with you and General Buckner and 
General Turchin about the monument of General 
James Deshler, who was killed at Chickamauga. 
You may think I am presumptuous to ask you 
such questions as I have below at this late period 
after the great war. General, I believe that you 
belong to the broad minded ranks of statesmen 
and will feel free to say what you think. 

The questions are, which added most to the 
overthrow of slavery in the United States, Mrs. 
Harriet Beecher Stowe's ''Uncle Tom's Cabin," or 
Senator Mason's fugitive slave law of 1850? 
Very respectfully yours, 

W. M. Cockrum. 

289 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Nashville, Tennessee, 

November 16, 1896. 
Col. W. M. Cockrum, 

Oakland City, Ind. 
Dear Colonel: 

I have your letter and have noted the ques- 
tions you ask. My opinion of Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle 
Tom's Cabin" is that it was a well written novel 
and was very readable. Had it not been that so 
many newspapers in the North referring to the 
book, made so many unfavorable comments 
against the South and in so many ways made such 
damaging statements declaring that they were 
true, the book would not have been received in the 
South with such bitter criticisms from the south- 
ern press. 

The fugitive slave law of 1850 was the out- 
growth of many denunciations of slavery by the 
abolitionists of the North. There were many pro- 
visions in that law that were not needed and no 
doubt put there to goad the Anti-Slavery people 
of the North. The two questions had the same 
effect. ''Uncle Tom's Cabin" made the North many 
bitter enemies in the South. The fugitive slave 
law of 1850 made the South many bitter enemies 
in the North. 

Very truly, 
Wm. B. Bates. 

390 



THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

(To show something of the nerve of General 
Bates, I will relate an instance told me by General 
A. P. Stewart, who commanded the Division that 
General Bates' brigade belonged to. The first day 
of the Battle of Chickamauga, there was given to 
General Bates 500 men to fill out his brigade. They 
had no arms. General S. B. Buckner, who com- 
manded the corps, was with General Stewart mak- 
ing an inspection of his command. Coming to 
Bates who had his bridgade in line and riding 
along the front, Buckner saw a large number of 
men without guns. Turning to General Bates he 
said: ''General where are you going to get arms 
for these men ?" Bates faced General Buckner and 
saluting him said : 'T am going to capture them I" 
And he did.) 



Senator B. F. Wade, of Ohio. 

Oakland City, Indiana, 

January 10, 1876. 
Hon. B. F. Wade, 

Washington, D. C. 
My Dear Mr. Wade: 

I don't mean to be impertinent but if you will 
answer as you believe the two questions, I shall 
be grateful. 

Question : Which added the most to the over- 
throw of slavery Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's 
*'Uncle Tom's Cabin" or Senator Mason's fugitive 
slave law of 1850? 

Respectfully yours, 

W. M. Cockrum. 

291 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Ashtabula, Ohio, 

July 19, 1876. 
Mr. W. M. Cockrum, 

Oakland City, Ind. 
Mr. Dear Sir : 

The Questions you ask is one question with 
two heads. Mrs. Stowe was inspired by her love 
of liberty in writing ''Uncle Tom's Cabin." She 
only intended to write a few numbers for the Na- 
tional Era, an Anti-Slavery paper published then 
at Washington, D. C. These articles took like 
wild fire and there was such a demand for more 
that she wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Nothing 
before had ever stirred the South to such a de- 
gree of hatred for the abolitionists as that book; 
and it was one of the main things in bringing 
about the Great War, that destroyed the great 
monster slavery. 

The obnoxious fugitive slave law that was 
passed by Congress in 1850, to aid the South in 
re-capturing their runaway slaves and make the 
Anti-Slavery people help them. This law turned 
hundreds of thousands of people in the North 
against slavery who cared but little about it until 
they saw that the slave owners had made a law 
so that they could kidnap a free negro, carry him 
before a commissioner and have him adjudged to 
be their property. The negro had nothing to say 

292 



THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

in the matter and was sent South and put into 
slavery. This unlawful business added much to 
bringing on the war and the overthrow of slavery. 
My old partner, Hon. Joshua R. Gidding, said 
when he first saw Mrs. Stowe's ''Uncle Tom's 
Cabin," that it was a hundred pound bomb in- 
spired by God and fired at the damnable curse of 
slavery and the explosion would be heard around 
the entire world. 

Very truly, 

B. F. Wade. 

(Mr. Wade was elected to the United States 
Senate in 1851 where his long years of service 
won for him a never-ending reputation. He was 
in the advance in the Anti-Slavery movements 
while his indomnitable pluck, hard hitting 
speeches, without a particle of polish, rendered 
him a most conspicuously effective champion. 
During the time of the Nebraska debate, Mr. Bad- 
ger, a member from North Carolina, described 
himelf as wishing to emigrate to the new territory 
and to carry his old colored mamma with him. The 
slave woman who had nursed him in infancy, and 
childhood and whom he had loved as a real mother 
and he could not take her. The enemies of this 
most benevolent m.easure forbade him. **We are 
unwilling you should take the old lady there" in- 
teruDted Wade. ''We are afraid you will sell her 
when you get her there." This was received with 
a roar of laughter, and silenced Mr. Badger.) 

293 



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Senator Brownlow, of Tennessee. 

Oakland City, Indiana, 

May 14, 1875. 
Senator Wm. G. Brownlow, 
Washington, D. C. 
Dear Senator Brownlow: 

I don't mean to be impertinent in writing to 
you. I have read of you since I was a small boy. 
I saw you many times at Nashville during the 
war. Will you, at your leisure, answer the two 
questions below stated on this paper? 

Question : Which added the most to the over- 
throw of slavery Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's 
'•'Uncle Tom's Cabin" or Senator Mason's fugitive 
slave law of 1850 ? 

Respectfully yours, 

W. M. Cockrum. 



Washington, D. C, 

June 11, 1875. 
Mr. W. M. Cockrum, 

Oakland City, Indiana. 
My Dear Mr. Cockrum: 

Your letter with the questions you have re- 
quested me to answer have been received. I think 
that Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" made the 

294 



THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

southern fire eaters madder than anything that 
was done to them before. You know that it was 
said in the Bible days that those the Lord wished 
to destroy he first made mad. The slave holding 
elements were very careful to have destroyed 
every copy of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," that they 
could hear of. I got a chance and sent to Cincin- 
nati for a copy, which I got in due time. I kept 
it hid and every time I had an opportunity I read 
it. The book was interesting to a high degree. It 
told about one-half the truth. Mrs. Stowe had 
not a chance to see the worst part of slavery — 
that could only be seen in the black district of 
Louisiana, or in some parts of South Carolina 
where the negroes were treated much worse than 
the dumb brutes were. Ten or a dozen living in 
a small shanty and sometimes in sand dunes that 
look like haycocks in a meadow without a particle 
of ventilation. 

Senator Mason, when he got the fugitive slave 
law of 1850 put on the statute book, felt that he 
had given the abolitionists a dig that would make 
them mighty sick ; but it was like a man that was 
preparing a rope to hang others and was himself 
hanged on it. Many things were the cause of the 
overthrow of slavery. I am of the opinion that the 
two questions had much to do with its downfall. 

I don't know what use you want to make of 

295 



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my scribbles, but do anything you want to with 
it. I am, 

Yours truly, 

W. G. Brownlow. 



Senator Matthew Stanley Quay, of Pennsylvania. 

Oakland City, Indiana, 

July 22, 1896. 
Hon. Matthew Stanley Quay, 

Washington, D. C. 
My Dear Senator Quay: 

You may think that I am presumptuous in 
asking two such questions as these below on this 
page. I feel free to come to you in this way. I have 
worked in the same political harness with you so 
many years that I feel that I know you. At your 
leisure I want you to answer the two questions as 
you think best. The questions are: Which added 
the most to the overthrow of slavery in the United 
States — Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's ''Uncle 
Tom's Cabin" or Senator Mason's fugitive slave 
law of 1850 ? 

Very respectfully yours, 

W. M. Cockrum. 

296 



THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

Hon. W. M. Cockrum, 

Oakland City, Indiana. 
My Dear Mr. Cockrum: 

The action of the ingredients in the two ques- 
tions were the same. ''Uncle Tom's Cabin" angered 
the South as nothing before ever had. In one of 
the black parishes of Louisiana, the negroes were 
given a holiday. A number of "Uncle Tom's 
Cabins" had been secured and a dummy of Mrs. 
Stowe was made. They were all gathered in a 
public square and the negroes were made to burn 
the dummy and the books. These self -estimated 
superior Southerners were so determined in their 
madness that, Hke the mad adder, bit themselves 
and were more determined to dissolve the Union 
than ever before. The fugitive slave law of 1850 
had the effect to make the northern people more 
intense in their opposition to slavery. Whilst it 
in some cases aided the southern slave owner in 
capturing his runaway slaves, it added hundreds 
of thousands of indifferent northern people to the 
anti-slavery cause. Many of them did everything 
they could to help the fugitive slaves gain their 
liberties. The two questions were directly op- 
posite each other, yet they worked together in 
bringing on the great war that freed the slaves. 

Yours truly, 
Matthew S. Quay. 

297 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

Honorable David Turpie, Unied States Senator 
from Indiana. 

Oakland City, Indiana, 

Sept. 26, 1892. 
Hon. David Turpie, 

Logansport, Ind. 
My Dear Senator: 

As one of your constituents I have the honor 
to ask that you, at your leisure, give me your 
opinion on the two questions below. I feel that 
you will not consider me impertinent by thus writ- 
ing you; knowing of your scholarly attainments, 
I feel that you will be glad to add your part in 
building up the history of our great country. 
There are so many important subjects that have 
been almost left blank. 

Question : Which added the most to the over- 
throw of slavery — Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's 
*'Uncle Tom's Cabin" or Senator Mason's fugitive 
slave law of 1850 ? Yours truly, 

W. M. Cockrum. 



Washington, D. C, 

December 16, 1892. 
Mr. W. M. Cockrum, 

Oakland City, Ind. 
Dear Sir: 

I have your letter and note the request you 

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THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

have made. Believing that your actions are gov- 
erned by the interest that you have in education 
and not by curiosity, I have concluded to answer 
your questions with as few words as I can to make 
myself understood. 

Mrs. Stowe builded better than she knew for 
it was her "Uncle Tom's Cabin" that fired the 
South to such a heat that it never cooled and the 
secession of many states was attempted. Senator 
Mason felt that the South had borne the nagging 
of the abolitionists so long that he would give 
them something to fuss about, and the fugitive 
slave law of 1850 was passed and became the law 
of the land. This was a bomb fired by the South 
that acted as a boomerang and did the South much 
more harm than it did the North. I think that the 
two questions had much to do with bringing on 
the war and thereby the overthrow of slavery. 

Truly yours, 

David Turpie. 



General Buckner. 

Park Hotel, Chickamauga, Georgia, 

Sept. 23, 1895. 
General S. B. Buckner, 

Reed House, Chattanooga, Tennessee. 
Dear General Buckner: 

We are so far removed from the ruinous ef- 

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f ects of the war, and our country has made such 
rapid strides toward the great position that we 
will fill in the world's history that it seems al- 
most as if the millenium year had commenced to 
dawn. When the thunder of war was roaring on 
the great Chickamauga battlefield, little did we 
think that in less than forty years this great coun- 
try would be united and the contending armies 
on that bloody field would be working hand in 
hand, building great monuments, honoring the 
American soldiers of the North and the South 
alike. 

General Buckner, I am a writer of history and 
would feel greatly complimented if you would in 
your own way answer the two questions below 
stated on this sheet. 

Question : Which added the most to the over- 
throw of slavery — Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's 
''Uncle Tom's Cabin" or Senator Mason's fugitive 
slave law of 1850 ? 

Very respectfully yours, 

W. M. Cockrum. 



Chattanooga, Tennessee, Sept. 25, 1895. 
Col. W. M. Cockrum, 

Park Hotel, Chickamauga, Georgia. 
My Dear Sir: 

I remember you as a commissioner on the 

300 



THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

Park from Indiana. I also remember that you and 
General Turchin, of Illinois, were selected to serve 
with General Bates and myself in a wrangle about 
a position on the Chickamauga Park. 

The two questions that you ask me to answer 
are of such a character that I am at a loss for in- 
formation that would enable me to answer them 
intelligently. I am of the opinion that Mrs. 
Stowe's book was received by the South as a 
challenge from the North, and caused many bit- 
ter things to be said and done that would not have 
happened if that book had never been written. 

The fugitive slave law of 1850 was made so 
that men who owned runaway slaves could re- 
capture them. It was no doubt a just law, if it 
had not been taken advantage of by bad thieving 
men who kidnapped free negroes and sold them in- 
to slavery. I saw a statement in some publication 
that three-fourths of the kidnapping was done by 
Northern men. I am truly yours, 

S. B. Buckner. 



General James Longstreet. 

Oakland City, Indiana, 

Oct. 15, 1895. 
General James Longstreet, 
My Dear General: 

At the dedication of the Great Military Park 

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on the Chickamauga Battlefield, I had the honor 
of escorting you and General Palmer, of Illinois, 
to the Indiana Headquarters and of introducing 
you to Governor Matthews, of Indiana. At that 
dedication was the only time I ever saw you. Dur- 
ing the war I had no special anxiety to meet you. 
General, I am collecting letters from prominent 
men in all parts of the United States. Below on 
this page you will find two questions that I would 
be pleased to have you answer in your own way. 
From no one would I appreciate a letter more than 
from the gallant commander of the fighting first 
corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. I am 

Very truly yours, 

W. M. Cockrum. 
Question : Which added the most to the over- 
throw of slavery — Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's 
''Uncle Tom's Cabin" or Senator Mason's fugitive 
slave law of 1850? 



Gainesville, Georgia, 

November 8, 1875. 
Col. W. M. Cockrum, 

Oakland City, Indiana. 
My Dear Mr. Cockrum: 

I have your letter. I do recollect you; you 
took General Palmer and me in what you said was 
an "Indiana Carryall" to visit your Governor and 

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THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

returned us to the hotel. As to the questions I 
am at a loss to know how to answer them. I was 
for four years at West Point, and as soon as I was 
through there I was ordered to Mexico and when 
that war was over I was put on duty in the West 
and was many years on out-post duty. Then the 
civil war came on. I had no chance to know much 
about the civil affairs of the country, either north 
or south. My Father had a few slaves that were 
not very profitable. One he gave to me when I 
was about home, named Daniel. This old slave 
was very faithful, but I was most of the time in 
the territory of the West, that was not in favor 
of slavery, so I could not have Daniel with me. 
When I went into the Confederate service, I called 
for Daniel. He, by this time, was old and had the 
rheumatism, but he was a great help to me. After 
the war Daniel, of course was free. I was so poor 
that I could not do anything for him. Finally, I got 
into business, and when I had some money I con- 
cluded to hunt Daniel up and found that he, with 
several of my father's family slaves were all left 
at Macon, Mississippi. I went to see them. Daniel 
was still doing little jobs and got money out of it 
to keep him from want. By this time Daniel had 
got to be an exhorter in a negro church. He was 
mighty glad to see me, but was more interested 
in my spiritual welfare than anything else. In 

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one of his calls he said, "Massa Jim, do you belong 
to any church?" "Oh yes," I said, "I try to be a 
good Christian." He laughed loud and long, and 
said, "Something must have scared you awful 
bad to change you so from what you were when 
I had to care for you." As to the questions you 
asked me I have this to say that I never saw a 
copy of Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and I 
did not know of such a fugitive slave law as the 
one you ask about, until after the war. No doubt 
you will think me a dummy in fact. 

With a soldier's handshake at a distance, I 
bid you goodby, 

James Longstreet. 



Hon. William D. Kelley. 

Oakland City, Indiana, 

February 17, 1888. 
Hon. William D. Kelley, 

Washington, D. C. 
My Dear Mr. Kelley: 

I am collecting letters from prominent men 
in all parts of our country. Knowing the busy 
life that you lead working for the welfare of this 
country, I hesitate to bother you with this. If 
you can have time I would be pleased if you would 
in your own way answer the two questions below 
on this sheet. 

304 



THIRTEEN INTERESTING LETTERS 

Question : Which added the most to the over- 
throw of slavery — Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" or Senator Mason's fugitive 
slave law of 1850 ? 

Very respectfully yours, 

W. M. Cockrum. 



Washington, D. C, 

November 20, 1888. 
Mr. W. M. Cockrum, 

Oakland City, Indiana. 
My Dear Sir : 

Your letter of some months ago has been neg- 
lected owing to so much accumulated business. 
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe 'Vrote better than 
she knew," her "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was the most 
damaging blow that slavery ever got up to that 
time. It showed the curse of human bondage in 
an unanswerable way that maddened the South as 
they never had been before. In one place in 
Southern Mississippi they made a dummy effigy 
of Mrs. Stowe, and had their negroes hang it 
where there were several speeches made. Among 
them was one from a young lawyer who in part 
said that thus should perish all enemies of the 
South. 

The fugitive slave law of 1850, was the most 
one-sided spite legislation that has ever been 

305 



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passed by any legislature in this country. It was 
very damaging in its operation in many places 
where slavery had a friendly U. S. commissioner. 
In the City of Philadelphia two free negroes, 
a man and a woman, were arrested and taken be- 
fore a U. S. Commissioner who after reading the 
evidence of the kidnapper and his partner (the 
negroes were not allowed to give any evidence) 
decided that they were his property. They were 
smuggled on to a boat and run out of the Dela- 
ware river and carried to Maryland and then to 
Virginia where they were sold for one thousand 
dollars each to a Virginia tobacco planter. 

Very truly, 
William D. Kelley. 



306 



CHAPTER XXX 



KIDNAPPING THE GOTHARD BOYS. 

These boys were born at the Diamond Is- 
land in Posey County in about 1820. About the 
year 1824, Gothard moved his family to a little 
log cabin a half mile southwest of what is now 
known as Calvert's chapel, Vanderburg, County. 
About the year 1825, three men whose names are 
not l:nov/n except the leader, named Lynn, stole 
the boys and took them back to Diamond Island 
where they were secreted and afterward taken 
awEy to Missouri, which created a great commo- 
tion in the neighborhood. A party was organized 
to search for the boys, but they were not success- 
ful. The party v/as headed by Uncle Paddy Cal- 
vert. With him were Bob Calvert, Joseph Car- 
ter and John Armstrong and two or three others. 
While they were searching for the boys at 
Diamond Island the company had a skir- 
mish with the kidnappers with clubs, knives and 
guns. In the midst of the battle, which was a 
desperate one from start to finish, Paddy Calvert 
came near losing has life. The kidnappers got 
between him and the rest of his party and hemmed 
him behind a set of hewed logs for a house. In at- 

307 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

tempting to escape he ran his horse over the logs 
lengthwise. The horse caught his foot between 
the logs and fell. At that the kidnappers rushed 
to his relief. His horse got its foot loose or Cal- 
vert would have been killed. The rescuing party 
found there were too many kidnappers for them 
to contend with so they fell back and returned to 
their homes. It afterward developed that the 
boys were hidden in a well near by at the time 
this battle took place. They were then taken into 
Missouri and sold into slavery. A few months 
after that ''Grandfather Armstrong" as he was 
known, and John Armstrong sold out their pos- 
sessions and moved to what was then called the 
Ked River Country, located in southwestern Ark- 
ansas. ''Uncle Pady Calvert" and his son Robert 
went with a four horse team to help them move. 
On their way home they stopped over night in the 
neighborhood where the little boys were sold and 
in talking with the gentleman with whom they 
stayed all night, they learned that two little mu- 
latto boys were brought there and sold to his 
neighbors. The next morning Mr. Calvert and 
his son went to see the gentleman who had bought 
the boys and asked him to call the boys up one at 
a time and if they did not know him or his son 
or both of them, they would not claim them as 
stolen boys. Ike was called up, but failed to rec- 

308 



KIDNAPPING THE GOTHARD BOYS 

ognize either man. Then Jack was called and he 
did not know Mr. Calvert but knew his son at once 
and said— "That's Marsa Bob Calvert." Then the 
boys both seemed to recollect the two men and 
recalled their names. The man who had bought 
them readily gave them up to Mr. Calvert as they 
were stolen property. He took them home, raised 
them to manhood sent them to school and gave 
them an education the same as he did his own 
children. An agreement was made between Cal- 
vert and the Missouri man that the boys were 
never to go into bondage again. When they were 
twenty-one years old he gave each of them a good 
horse, a saddle and bridle, and one hundred dol- 
lars apiece and started them out into the world. 



30') 



CHAPTER XXXI 



THOSE LIVING IN THE NORTHWEST TER- 
RITORY THAT OWNED SLAVES ATTEMPT- 
ED TO HOLD THEM BY MAKING EMANCIPA- 
TION AND INDENTURE PAPERS. 

Beiovv^ is given a few specimens of the way 
the poor, unsuspecting negroes were fooled, being 
made to beheve they were signing their emanci- 
pation papers, when in fact, they were signing an 
indenture that gave the control of their labor for 
a long period of years to their so-called masters 
who, in many cases, pretended to be liberating 
them. Since writing this article it has been 
thought best to withold the names of those mak- 
ing these pretended emancipation papers and use 
fictitious ones, for the reason that m_any of the 
descendants are still living and are among the best 
people of the State who would scorn any such 
dishonest action. 

'^On the 27th day of July 1813 I, Joseph Bar- 
ton, have this day set free my slave, Thomas Turn- 
er, and I hereby make and acknov/ledge the eman- 
cipation paper for his complete freedom. The 
said Thomas Turner for the privilege of being 
known as a free man, has agreed to indenture his 

310 



ATTEMPT TO HOLD SLAVES 

services to me for a period of thirty years from 
this date. 

(Seal) Joseph Barton 

"I, Thomas Turner, do hereby accept the 
emancipation papers for which I sincerely thank 
my former master and do cheerfully agree to in- 
denture myself to the said Joseph Barton as per 
the above agreement. 

July 27, 1813. Thomas Turner. 

X My own mark. 

On the 30th day of August this generous 
hearted Joseph Barton sold this negro to a per- 
son for five hundred and thirty-five dollars who 
smuggled him across the Ohio river where he was 
sold into slavery in the south. 

''I, George Endicutt, have decided to emanci- 
pate my slave, Job Boyce and I hereby certify that 
I this day give him his freedom and it affords me 
the greatest pleasure to bear witness that he has 
always been an obedient, faithful and honest ser- 
vant. By an agreement of the said Job Boyce he 
agrees to indenture himself to me for twenty-three 
years or until he is sixty years old. 
(Seal) August 20, 1813. 

George Endicutt. 

I, Job Boyce, of my own free will do hereby 
accept my freedom papers from my former 
master George Endicutt and have agreed to in- 
denture myself to him for the time specified in the 
agreement, August 20, 1813. 

Job Boyce 
X My own mark 
(Seal) Witness James Boswell." 

311 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

"September 26, 1813, I, Noah Freeman, of 
Indiana Territory, on this date, do hereby emanci- 
pate my slave, Mary Ann, to enjoy all the rights 
of freedom that a negro and an uneducated woman 
can. It affords me great satisfaction to testify 
that she has been a most faithful and obedient 
servant. This paper and her freedom to be in 
force and effect after the 26th day of September, 
1833. Until that time she has indentured her 
service to me and my family. 

Noah Freeman. 

I, Mary Ann, the former slave of my master, 
Noah Freeman, accept my emancipation papers 
and do agree to faithfully work for my former 
master and mistress until the 20th day of Sep- 
tember, one thousand, eight hundred and thirty- 
three. Mary Ann. 

X My Mark. 

(Seal) Witness, Jason Brown." 

"This is to certify that I, James Hartwell, of 
my own free will and accord do this day emanci- 
pate and give freedom to a negro slave, named 
Charles Hope, brought by me from North Carolina. 
In making these papers I want to bear testimony 
to the painstaking and careful way he has done 
his w©rk and that he is a quiet and most obedient 
servant and has always been very easily managed. 
For these good qualities it affords me great pleas- 
ure to be able to give him his rightly earned free- 
dom. For some necessary expenses that has to 
be incurred before he can leave the home he has 
so long lived at and for the love he has for me and 
my family, he hereby agrees to indenture his ser- 
vices to me for twenty-nine years from the 18th 
of October 1809, which is the date of this agree- 
ment. 

(Seal) James Hartwell. 

312 



ATTEMPT TO HOLD SLAVES 

I, Charles Hope, do hereby acknowledge my 
master for the kindness he has shown in setting 
me free and I cheerfully accept the conditions in 
my freedom papers and agree to serve the time 
specified, or until death. 

Charles Hope. 

X His mark.*' 

Note the meanness of this hypocrite who 
made the great show of giving this negro pretend- 
ed freedom with such a good certificate of charac- 
ter, which would make the negro more saleable 
when he had an opportunity to sell him and on 
the fifteenth day of the next November he did 
sell him to a neighbor for four head of horses, 
ten head of cattle and one hundred acres of mili- 
tary donation land and a promissory note for thrae 
hundred dollars. The next year this negro went 
with his master down the Wabash river on a pre- 
tended trip to the saline country of Illinois, but 
was carried farther south and sold into slavery 
for life. 

In 1805 the Kukendal family, by their agent 
Samuel Vannorsdell, had two negroes arrested and 
were attempting to carry them out of the Terri- 
tory when Governor Harrison issued a proclama- 
tion forbidding their removal, as Vannorsdell did 
not have the consent of the negroes to remove 
them. This brought on a spirited law-suit. Gover- 
nor Harrison and others becoming bondsmen for 

313 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

the negroes. The case went over to the next term 
of court. At that term the two negroes were pro- 
duced in court but in the meantime Governor Har- 
rison had indentured one of them for a period of 
eleven years. 

In 1854 the author was visiting a family in 
an old settled portion of Southern Indiana. Dur- 
ing that visit it became known to a young lady of 
that family that he was gathering data of inci- 
dents concerning the early settlers and of any- 
thing that would be of interest about ''Ye Olden 
Tymes." This young lady informed him that they 
had the emancipation and indenture papers of 
"Old Tom" v/ho was their slave and friend, which 
papers she thought would be of real worth to one 
gathering such data. She said she would show 
the papers and he might copy them provided he 
would not use their names. This was readily 
agreed to. 

"May 26, 1815. To all v/hom it may concern. 

This is to certify that this day I have set free 
and by these presents do give emancipation papers 
to my faithful servant Thomas Agnew and from 
this date he shall be known as a freeman. Given 
under my hand and seal. 

Thomas Trueman. 

(Seal) Witness, Joseph Forth. 

"This is to certify that I have this day re- 
ceived my emancipation papers from my former 
master. As I don't know any other home but the 
one I have always lived at, I do hereby indenture 

314 



ATTEMPT TO HOLD SLAVES 

myself to my master, John Trueman for thirty 
years from this date, he agreeing to feed and 
clothe me during that time. 

Thomas Agnew 
May 26, 1815. X His mark." 

After the papers were copied this intelligent 
young lady related this interesting story of Tom's 
life— 

"Just before the state of Indiana was ad- 
mitted into the Union my father moved here from 
a slave state and brought with him, Tom, whom 
he had owned from his infancy. He had no 
thought that there would be any trouble about it 
as Tom was a fixture in the family. A friend one 
day told my father that parties were preparing 
to bring habeas corpus proceedings and emanci- 
pate Tomx. The only thing my father couid 
do was to emancipate him and have him indenture 
his time after he was a freeman. This was done 
as above shown and Tom v/ent on faithfully with 
his work as before— this was nearly twenty years 
before I was born. 

'The good old faithful slave worked on the 
farm with my father for nearly twenty-seven 
years after the indenture was made, when my 
father sickened and died. Tom then kept on work- 
ing with my brother the same as before. 

''On settling up the estate, it was found that 
315 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

my father was more in debt than had been sup- 
posed and there would be but Httle left. 

"A cousin of my father who lived in a slave 
state where he had moved from, held a mortgage 
on our farm. This cousin was a 'Shylock* and de- 
manded the last cent which would take everything, 
farm and all at a forced sale. He however made 
this proposition to my mother ; that if Tom would 
go home with him and work for him as long as he 
lived, he would release the mortgage. This, my 
mother would not consent to as Tom had less than 
two years of his indenture term to put in and he 
was so faithful to the family that she would not 
listen to such a transaction. 

"Tom had learned the condition of things as 
nothing was kept from him and he had planned 
with this cousin to give his life service for the 
family's comfort. He would not consent to any- 
thing but that he must go to save the farm and 
the family from want. The agreement was made, 
the mortgage was cancelled and Tom went to the 
home of his new master, now a slave in fact. 

''Some time after this an uncle of my mother 
died and left her several thousand dollars. This 
made us independent and my mother's first 
thoughts were of Tom. She went to hunt for him 
and found him faithfully working away. She 
went to his master, told him that she wanted to 

316 



ATTEMPT TO HOLD SLAVES 

take Tom back with her and that she was prepared 
to pay him in full for his mortgage, interest and 
trouble. This he refused saying that Tom was 
priceless and that no money could buy him. She 
tried in every way to have him agree to let Tom 
go with her but he was obdurate. Tom told her 
not to mind him, that there would be but a few 
years more for him to serve as age was creeping 
on and he would soon be in another country where 
no trouble could come. 

"My mother was a nervy woman and she de- 
termined to liberate Tom if it could be done. She 
was advised to go to Evansville and see a lawyer 
by the name of Conrad Baker. My mother ex- 
plained to Mr. Baker Tom's situation and a state- 
ment of the evidence that could be obtained. She 
also gave him the emancipation and indenture 
papers. Mr. Baker informed her that there was 
no doubt about Tom being legally freed and that if 
he could be got into a free state there would 
be no further need of legal proceedings. It was 
found that this could not be done so proceedings 
were brought in the County where Tom was held 
in slavery, to liberate him. The facts with affidav- 
its to back them up were filed with the case. The 
Court, after hearing all the evidence, decided that 
since Tom had been given emancipation papers 
which made him free and since he had indentured 

317 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

himself for thirty years and had put in over time 
on that agreement, he was now free. 

Tom came back to Indiana with my mothcx' 
and Hved with our family during the rest of his 
Hf e and when he died we gave him a royal funeral, 
feeling that we had lost our best friend and one 
of nature's noblemen." 

After Colonel Baker was elected Governor of 
Indiana, the author wrote him about this case 
and sent him a copy of the emancipation and in- 
denture papers with a pretty full history of the 
case. His reply is here giVen in full: 

Executive Office, 

Indianapolis, Ind., 

Sept. 20, 1870. 
Colonel W. M. Cockrum, 

Oakland City, Indiana. 
I am in receipt of your letter together with 
the enclosure of the 15th inst. It affords me great 
pleasure to say that no case in my whole practice 
as a lawyer was so gratifying to me as the libera- 
tion from, bondage of that true-hearted old Nubian, 
Tom Agnew. 

I well recollect the lady, Mrs. Trueman, who 
was my client in the case. She was so well pleased 
with the good deed that she had been instrumental 
in bringing about that she wanted to pay mie three 
or four times my rightful fee. 

Very truly, 
Conrad Baker. 



318 



CHAPTER XXXII 



A LETTER FROM JOHN T. HANOVER 

Freedman's Bureau, Washington, 

March, 9, 1865. 
Mr. Cockrum at Nashville, Tenn. 
My dear Mr. Cockrum: 

I certainly do recollect you and was so glad 
to receive your letter. You have not forgotten the 
real-estate firm. Your letter was forwarded to 
me and as you will see my name is changed since 
you knew me. I recall the incidents at your 
father's home with pleasure. I was so fearfully 
sick from the poison of the pesky snake that I 
thought I should not get over it. Your father and 
mother were so very kind to me. When you write 
home I v/ant you to remember me to them and say 
how I do thank them, for their kindness and to 
Dr. McCullough. How patiently he worked with 
my hand. I shall always love him. If he is living 
remember me to him. 

I read your army experience with interest and 
I am so glad you survived the terrible wound and 
the vile prison. 

Most of the young men who were with me in 
Indiana are in the army. This rotten Confederacy 

319 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

is on its last legs. Soon the old flag of the Union 
will wave over all of our America, the slaves free 
and our country will soon gather strength and 
then make rapid bounds to its destined greatness. 
I have none of my papers or note book with me 
but I am willing that you should have one of the 
diaries or more if you will have copies made and 
return them to me. I can^t say for certain how 
many fugitive slaves passed through the hands of 
the men on duty in my district on the Ohio river, 
but for the seven years more than an average of 
four thousand each year. The work you did for 
me was all right and I assure you that I had the 
utmost confidence in your father. He was a great 
help to me as he was personally acquainted with 
all the country that I had charge of. It was risky 
business. I remember some men who were of 
help to me and always seemed to do what they did 
so carefully. I recall the two Mr. Ritchies who 
lived near your father; Dr. Lewis of Princeton; 
Mr. Caswell and George Hill of Lynnville. (Mrs. 
Caswell could bake such good salt rising bread). 
Dr. Posey was a true man. There will be no more 
need of filling his coalbank with runaway negroes. 
If I succeed well, I intend to come once more and 
go over the routes of my old work. I should like 
so m.uch to see all the people that I used to know 
in that country. If you should go to Philadel- 

320 



LETTER FROM JOHN HANOVER 

phia, go to the old Post — I may be there soon. I 
will always be glad to see you and talk over these 
matters again. 

Yours as ever, 

J. T. Hanover. 



321 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 
CHAPTER I— Organization of the Anti-Slavery 

League 8-28 

CHAPTER n— Jerry Sullivan's Raid at the old Don- 

gola Bridge 29-37 

CHAPTER III— An Attempt to Catch Runaway Ne- 
^ groes, Which ended in a Desperate Battle With 

Wild Hogs 38-43 

CHAPTER IV— Ira Caswell Brings Three Negroes 

to Col. Cockrum's Barn Cellar 44-48 

---CHAPTER V— Slaves Escape While Owners Are in 

Deep Sleep as a Result of too Much Drinking. _ 49-54 
"Chapter VI— how Three Runav/ay Slaves Were - 
Assisted to Freedom by the Underground Rail- 
road 55-59 

CHAPTER VII— Kidnappers Kidnapped 60-68 

CHAPTER VIII— Workings of the Underground Rail- 
road and Some People Engaged in the Danger- 
ous Work 69-74 

CHAPTER IX— Crazy Jeff Lewis 75-97 

CHAPTER X— Ben Swain 98-105 

CHAPTER XI— Sam Lynn 106-120 

CHAPTER XII— Slave Hunt to Watch Kirk's Mill 

Bridge 121-127 

CHAPTER XIII— George Sturgis 128-152 

CHAPTER XIV— Dr. John W. Posey and Rev. El- 

dridge Hopkins Release Kidnapped Negroes__153-162 
CHAPTER XV— John Bundy, an Employe of the An- 
ti-Slavery League 163-181 

CHAPTER XVI— Thomas Jeffries 182-193 

CHAPTER XVII— John Dole 194-217 

CHAPTER XVIII— Beecher's View of the Fugitive 

Slave Law 218-223 



322 



x< 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 
CHAPTER XIX— John and Pete Mimday 224-229 

CHAPTER XX— Rev. Hiram Hunter Releases Kid- 
napped Negroes 230-236 

CHAPTER XXI— The Kidnapping of Rube at 

Princeton, Ind 237-241 

CHAPTER XXII— A Bluff That Failed to Work___242-244 
CHAPTER XXIII — Joseph Montgomery Releases 

Kidnapped Negroes 245-247 

CHAPTER XXIV— Kidnapping of Steve Hardin___248-249 
CHAPTER XXV— An Attempt to Kidnap a Barber 

at Petersburg, Ind 250-251 

CHAPTER XXVI— Two Negroes Kidnapped West 

of Princeton, Ind 251-253 

CHAPTER XXVII— Job Turner 254-264 

CHAPTER XXVIII— John Davenport 265-276 

CHAPTER XXIX— Interesting Letters 277-306 

CHAPTER XXX— Kidnapping the Gothard Boys_ -307-309 
CHAPTER XXXI— Emancipation and Indenture 

Papers 310-318 

CHAPTER XXXII— A Letter From John T. Hanov- 
er, alias John Hansen 319-321 



323 



INDEX. 

PAGE 
Adams, Dr. J. R 250 

Adkins, Andrew 29 

Adkins, Pink _ 67 

Allen, Gilp 119 

A Bluff That Failed to Work 242 

Attempted Kidnapping of Barber at Petersburg 250 

Baker, Governor Conrad 318 

Barrett, John W 239 

Blackford, Judge 219 

Beecher, Henry Ward 218 

Beal, Mr 185 

Baker, William 150 

Buckner, Gen. Simon B 59-299 

Bates, Gen. William B 289-59 

Booker, Isham 67-269 

Brooks, Hunter 94 

Bodin, Esquire 112 

Bundy, John 163-175-178 

Brownlow, Senator 294 

Cullom, Senator 277 

Carpenter, Willard 129 

CoflBn, Levi 21 

Crittenden, Gen. T. L 27 

Caswell, Ira 44-58-67-81-89-258 

Coleman, Willis 44 

Turchin, Gen. John B 59 

Cockrum, Col. J. W 69-167-239 

Corn, Mr 102 

Calvert Neighborhood 171 

Col. J. W. Cockrum's Barn Cellar, Slave Refuge 191 



324 



INDEX. 

PAGE 

Cockrum, Col. W. M 269 

Erwin, Thomas 5g 

Ellington, Rev. Mr 29 

Emancipation and Indenture Papers 310 

Eastman Family 49 

Ford, Mr hq 

Fletcher, Calvin 219 

Hall, Judge 151 

Hathaway, John 39 

Hansen, John 52-167-173-265-259 

Hill, Geo. W 52-67-89-208-269 

Hart, Thomas 58 

Helms, Gen. Benjamin Hardin 59 

Howland, Capt. Livingston 94 

Harriman's Ferry II9 

Hawthorne, Robert 133-259-273 

Hopkins, Rev. Eldridge 158 

Hunter, Rev. Hiram, Releases Kidnapped Negroes__ 230 

Hanover, John T. (alias John Hansen) 319 

Jeffries, Thomas 182 

Johnson, Gen. Sidney A 27 

Jones, Lieutenant 95 

Johnson, Henry 98-109 

John and Jane 139 

Jerry, Mr 141-145 

Jones, Mrs 146 

Jones, Mr 148 

Kelley, Hon. Wm. D 304 

Kinman, Jack 61 

Knight, Hiram 67-269 

Kirkman, Joseph J 90 

Kratz and Heilman 123 



325 



INDEX. 

PAGE 

Kidnapping Rube at Princeton, Ind 239 

Kidnapping of Steve Hardin 248 

Kidnapping of Two Free Negroes West of Princeton 252 

Kidnapping of Gothard Boys 307 

Longstreet, Gen 301 

Lacey, Major 21 

Lincoln, Abraham 59-92 

Lewis, Crazy Jeff 75 

Lynn, Sam 106 

Lynn, Mr 106 

Long, Rube 147 

Lewis, Dr. Andrew 150 

Morton, Senator 281 

Medcalf, Tom 34-67-263 

McDermitt, Mr 41 

Mason, Dr. Geo. C 71 

Miller, Gen. John F 94 

McCullough, Dr. Samuel D 132 

Mundy, John and Pete 224 

Montgomery, Joseph, Liberates two Kidnapped 

Negroes 245 

Mills, Senator 284 

Naley, Obadiah 134-264 

Negro Preacher 166 

O'Reiley, P. G 149 

Posey, Dr. John W 19-44-74-153-181-259 

Palmer, N. B 29 

Quiggins, Mitch 133 

Quay, Senator 196 

Robinson, Judge A. L 95 

Ray, John 99 

Stuart, Gen. A. P 286 



326 



INDEX. 

PAGE 
Slave Trader 144 

Simpson, Wesley 133-219 

Stormont and Carothers Neighborhood 127 

Slave Hunt at Kirk's Mill Bridge 121 

Spradley Neighborhood 119 

Sullivan, Jerry, Raid 29 

Simpson, Basil 32v82 

Stubblefield, Joseph 38-180 

Street, Isaac 42 

Stuckey, John 67-92-129-263 

Swain, Ben 98-105 

Sheriff, Deputy 103 

Sturgis, George 128-138 

Travell, John 49 

Turner, Job 79-164-196-206-254 

Tayiorsville, nov/ Selvin 116 

Tennesseean Come to Grief 191 

Thorp, James and Henry Scales 215 

Thurston, Dr 274 

Turpie, Senator 298 

Uncle Simon 203 

Vest, George ^ 194 

Vorhees, Senator 280 

Willis, Bev 40 

Wright's Ferry 50 

Williams, Mr 169-170 

Wick, Judge 219 

Wade, Senator 291 



327 



INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Col. W. M. Cockrum Frontispiece 

Map of the Underj§;round Railroad 8 

John Hansen 1* 17 

Old Dongola Bridge 32 

Ira Caswell 48 

Runaway Negro 64 

Dr. John W. Posey 80 

Dr. Andrew Lewis 145 

Rev. Eldridge Hopkins 160 

Jobe Turner 176 v 

George W. Hill 192 "-"^ 

John Dole 208 ' 

Col. J. W. Cockrum 240^^ 

Robert P. Hawthorne 257 

John Davenport 273 



328 



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